HISTORY  OF 


THURSTON  PECK 


n 


A  HISTORY  OF 
CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
SAN    FKANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


A  HISTORY 


OF 


CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 


FROM  THE  SEVENTH  CENTURY  B.C. 

TO 

THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  A.D. 


BY 

HARRY  THURSTON   PECK,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

MEMBER  OF  THE  NATIONAL  INSTITUTE  OF  ARTS  AND  LEITERS 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 
1911 


All  rights  reitrv*d 


Copyright,  1911, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1911. 


Notfajooti  ilresa 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Korwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


51 


I 


VXORI   CARISSIMAE 


1927016 


PREFACE 

Long  experience  has  convinced  the  author  that,  as  a 
rule,  classical  students,  even  those  who  are  pursuing  the 
most  advanced  courses,  are  very  imperfectly  informed  as 
to  the  history  of  the  subjects  upon  which  they  are  en- 
gaged. They  may  be  thoroughly  trained  in  various 
ramifications  of  Classical  Philology,  while  knowing  little 
or  nothing  of  Classical  Philology  as  a  whole.  It  seems 
an  anomalous  thing  that  any  university  student  should 
proceed  to  his  doctorate  in  Greek  and  Latin  without  ever 
having  had  a  conspectus  of  the  entire  field  of  which  he 
is  familiar  with  a  part;  that,  for  example,  he  should  be 
able  to  give  no  intelligent  account  of  the  i\lexandrian 
School;  that  the  significance  of  the  Renaissance  to  a  clas- 
sicist should  not  be  clear  to  him;  that  Scaliger,  Lipsius, 
Casaubon,  Bentley,  Corssen,  and  Lachmann  should  be 
little  more  than  names;  and  that  he  should  have  learned 
nothing  genetically  about  literary  criticism,  text  criticism, 
and  scientific  linguistics. 

Yet  such  is  very  often  the  case;  and  though  it  is  to  be 
regretted,  it  is  not  a  reasonable  cause  for  censure.     There 

vii 


Vlll  PREFACE 

exist  no  manuals  at  the  present  time  to  give  this  general 
information  in  a  lucid,  coherent  manner,  and  without 
losing  sight  of  the  strand  which  unites  all  classical  studies 
and  makes  them  parts  of  a  splendid  whole.  Grafenhan's 
book  in  four  volumes,  the  publication  of  which  was  begun 
in  1843,  is,  of  course,  quite  obsolete  to-day.  Reinach's 
Manuel  de  Philologie  Classique  is  admirable  as  a  work 
of  reference,  but,  with  all  its  closely  packed  information, 
it  does  not  form  a  continuous  narrative.  The  treatise  by 
Dr.  Sandys,  published  only  a  few  years  ago,  is  a  monu- 
ment to  his  scholarship  and  wide  reading;  yet  the  multi- 
plicity of  details  contained  in  its  three  volumes  will  not 
unnaturally  deter  a  student,  unless  he  be  a  very  heroic 
seeker  after  knowledge. 

The  present  work  has,  therefore,  been  written  with 
the  desire  to  give  a  comprehensive  and  comprehensible 
knowledge  of  how  classical  studies  were  first  developed, 
and  of  that  gradual  evolution  which  has  made  Classical 
Philology  a  science,  possessing  at  the  same  time  some 
very  distinctly  marked  aesthetic  phases.  It  has  seemed 
best  to  mention  the  names  of  only  such  scholars  as  have 
helped  on  this  evolution  by  adding  something  to  the 
sum  of  human  knowledge.  The  adoption  of  such  a  plan 
has  made  it  possible  to  compress  into  a  volume  of  con- 
venient size  all  that  is  essential ;  while  the  bibliographical 
references  will  enable  the  reader  to  pursue  more  exhaus- 
tively any  particular  subject  that  has  here  been  touched 


PREFACE  IX 

upon.  It  is  hoped  that  the  book  may  be  of  some  prac- 
tical service  to  students  of  the  classics,  in  helping  them  to 
see  and  understand  the  unity  which  in  their  studies  is  too 
often  obscured  by  matters  of  secondary  importance. 

Harry  Thurston  Peck. 
New  York, 
March  29,  191 1. 


n-.- 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


Preface 


CHAPTER 

I.    The   Genesis   of    Philological    Studies    in 


Greece  

II.  The  Pr^-Alexandrian  Period 

III.  The  Alexandrian  Period 

IV.  The  Gr^eco-Roman  Period 
V.  The  Middle  Ages     . 

VI.  The  Renaissance 

VII.  Division  into  Periods 

VIII.  The  Age  of  Erasmus 

IX.  The  Period  of  Nationalism   . 

X.  The  German  Influence   . 

XI.  The  Cosmopolitan  Period 

Selected  Bibliographical  Index 
General  Index     


PAGES 

vii-ix 


S-27 

28-87 

88-129 

130-191 

192-259 

260-288 

289 

290-300 

301-384 

385-455 
456-458 

461-476 
477-491 


» 


INTRODUCTION  3 

the  past;  so  that  the  day  of  his  matriculation  (April  8, 
1777)  has  been  styled  "the  birthday  of  modern  philology." 

Classical  Philology  is  opposed  in  every  way  to  the 
spirit  of  pedantry.  Otfried  Miiller  well  said  of  it  that  it 
"does  not  strive  to  establish  particular  facts  nor  to  get 
an  acquaintance  with  abstract  forms,  but  to  grasp  the 
ancient  spirit  in  its  broadest  meaning,  in  its  works  of 
reason,  of  feeling,  and  of  imagination."  ^ 

There  are  four  recognized  methods  of  treating  the 
history  of  Classical  Philology. 

(i)  The  Synchronistic  or  Annalistic  Method,  which  deals 
with  the  history  by  periods. 

(2)  The  Biographical  Method,  which  treats  of  the  his- 
tory in  the  persons  of  great  representative  scholars. 

•  Since  the  study  of  Sanskrit  led  to  the  scientific  investigation  of  the 
Indo-European  languages  as  related  to  one  another,  the  new  science  of 
Comparative  Philology  has  arisen  to  complicate  still  more  the  meaning 
of  the  word  "philology"  when  simply  used.  The  Germans,  therefore, 
have  made  certain  distinctions  which  it  will  be  convenient  for  us,  also, 
to  adopt.  Philology  {Philologie)  when  not  modified  by  an  adjective  is 
the  general  study  of  language;  Comparative  Philology  is  better  styled 
Linguistics  (Linguistik) ;  while  Classical  Philology  {Klassische  Philo- 
logie or  Klassische  Allerthumswissenschaft)  is  that  comprehensive  study 
of  antiquity  which  has  just  now  been  defined.  For  the  various  mean- 
ings of  the  word  "philology"  at  different  times,  see  Grafenhan,  Ge- 
schichte  der  Klassischen  Philologie  im  Allerthum,  vol.  i  (Bonn,  1843); 
Lehrs,  Appendix  to  Herodiani  Scripta  Tria  (Berlin,  1857);  and  the 
interesting  references  given  by  Gudeman  in  pp.  1-4  of  his  Outlines  of 
the  History  of  Classical  Philology  {Boston,  1902).  In  a  remarkable 
passage  contained  in  Seneca's  Letters  (xviii.  v.  30-34,  Haase)  there  is 
an  acute  comparison  between  the  different  ways  in  which  a  philologist, 
a  grammarian,  and  a  philosopher  would  respectively  examine  Cicero's 
treatise  De  Republica. 


4  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

(3)  The  Eiodographic  Method,  which  describes  the  his- 
tory of  philology  by  subjects. 

(4)  The  Ethnographic  or  Geographic  Method,  which  dis- 
cusses the  philological  history  of  a  single  school  or  nation 
separately. 

In  this  book  it  is  proposed  to  follow  no  single  one  of 
these  methods  to  the  exclusion  of  the  others;  but  to  give 
a  general  survey  of  the  whole  subject,  keeping  constantly 
in  mind  the  need  of  chronological  symmetry;  emphasising 
and  making  clear  the  part  which  each  nation  or  each 
school  has  played;  and  at  the  same  time  bringing  into 
relief  the  individuals  whose  life-work  gains  an  added 
meaning  from  a  knowledge  of  their  personality.^ 

^  See  Fitz-Hugh,  Outlines  of  a  System  of  Classical  Pcedagogy  (1900). 
There  is  a  valuable  skeleton  history  of  classical  philology  by  Professor 
Alfred  Gudeman  in  his  Outlines,  etc.,  3d  ed.  (Boston,  1903)  ;  and  his 
more  elaborate  Grundrlss  (Leipzig  and  Berlin,  1907).  See  also  KroU's 
brief  Geschichte  der  Klassischen  Philologie  (Leipzig,  1908). 


I. 

THE    GENESIS    OF    PHILOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

IN   GREECE 

The  origins  of  the  Hellenic  people  are  exceedingly 
obscure,  and  they  take  us  back  to  a  remote  antiquity. 
The  fact  that  there  was  no  generic  name  for  the  race 
until  after  the  time  when  the  Homeric  poems  were  com- 
posed is  a  very  interesting  and  instructive  fact.  One 
cannot  even  say  that  the  Greeks  were  homogeneous;  and 
a  great  deal  of  the  most  modern  research  has  served 
only  to  darken  counsel  and  to  expose  the  fallacy  of  earlier 
theories.  Certain  it  is  that,  during  the  Stone  Age  and 
afterwards,  there  streamed  over  the  Grecian  peninsula 
great  waves  of  migratory  peoples  from  the  northeast. 
They  forced  their  way  to  the  southern  point  of  the  Morea, 
just  as  they  also  found  homes  in  southern  Italy  in 
the  Grecian  islands,  and  a  sure  foothold  in  Asia  Minor. 

It  is  a  picturesque  hypothesis  which  views  the  latter 
country  as  having  once  been  peopled  by  an  effeminate 
race  of  Semitic  origin,  tracing  their  descent  through 
polyandrous  mothers,  and  worshipping  female  deities, 
among  whom  the  Great  Mother,  afterwards  called  Cybele, 
was  supreme.  That  these  enervated  Canaanitish  shep- 
herds  should   have   been    subsequently   overcome   by   a 

5 


6  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

horde  of  virile  conquerors  from  Thrace  is  another  part 

of  the  same  ethnic  theory.     These  conquerors,  tracing 

their  descent  through  their  fathers  and  worshipping  the 

great   male   thundering    deity,    Bronton    or    Zeus,    were 

possibly  true  Hellenes,  and  they  established  a  civilisation 

of  their  own  in  Asia,  where  they  ruled  as  an  aristocracy 

in  the  states  and  cities  which  they  subsequently  founded.^ 

Yet  this  is  only  one  of  many  theories,  and  it  presents 

as  many  difficulties  as  it  explains.     The  importance  of  it 

lies  in  the  fact  that  it  serves  to  show  how  very  far  back 

into  the  past  we  must  look  for  anything  like  a  beginning 

of  that  culture  which  came  afterwards  to  be  regarded  as 

essentially  Hellenic.     The  explorations  at  Mycenae  and 

Tiryns  and  elsewhere,  though  attesting  the  antiquity  of 

certain  of  the  arts,  leave  us  still  at  a  loss  regarding  the 

racial  affinities  of  the  early  Greeks.     One  is  justified  in 

asserting  nothing  more  than  that  the  lands  which  became 

subsequently  Hellenized  were  first  populated  by  sections 

of  the  Mediterranean  race  comprising  the  so-called  Pelas- 

gians,  the  Iberians,  the  Ligurians,  and  the  Libyans,^     A 

later  migration  from  the  north,  moving  slowly  southward, 

overwhelmed  the  original  inhabitants  of  what  was  destined 

to  be  known  afterwards  as  Hellas,  or  Greece.     Professor 

G.  W.  Botsford  has  described  in  a  very  interesting  manner 

'See  Ramsay,  in  the  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,  ix.  351;  and 
Gardner,  New  Chapters  in  Greek  History,  pp.  28-54  (New  York  and 
London,  1892). 

^  See  Sergi,  The  Mediterranean  Race.    Eng.  trans.  (London,  1901). 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDLES   IN   GREECE  7 

the  nature  of  this  migration/  "  They  came  in  bands 
which  we  call  tribes,  each  under  its  chief.  Their  warriors 
travelled  on  foot,  dressed  in  skins  and  armed  with  pikes, 
and  with  bows  and  arrows,  while  their  women  and  chil- 
dren rode  in  two-wheeled  ox-carts.  They  found  Greece, 
their  future  home,  a  rugged,  mountainous  country,  with 
narrow .  valleys  and  only  a  few  broad  plains.  Every- 
where were  dense  forests,  haunted  by  lions,  wild  boars, 
and  wolves."  These  Greeks  of  the  Tribal  Age  were  semi- 
nomadic  in  their  habits;  since  at  first  they  built  mere 
huts  of  brush  and  clay,  which  they  readily  abandoned, 
and  they  must  for  centuries  have  shifted  their  uncertain 
habitations.  At  the  west  of  their  new  country  the  coast- 
line was  nearly  straight  and  with  no  harbours.  "  But 
those  who  came  to  the  eastern  coast  found  harbours 
everywhere  and  islands  near  at  hand.  They  began  at 
once  to  make  small  boats  and  to  push  off  to  the  islands. 

"  But  they  must  have  been  astonished  when  they  saw 
for  the  first  time  strange  black  vessels,  much  larger  than 
their  own,  entering  their  bays.  These  were  Phoenician 
ships  from  Sidon,  an  ancient  commercial  city,  and  in 
them  came  '  greedy  merchant  men,  with  countless  gauds  ' 

'  Botsford,  A  History  of  the  Orient  and  Greece  (New  York  and  London, 
1904).  See  also  E.  Meyer,  Forschtingen  zur  alien  Geschichte,  voL  i.  (Halle, 
1892);  Hall,  The  Oldest  Civilisation  of  Greece  (London,  1901);  and 
Ridgeway,  The  Early  Age  of  Greece  (Cambridge,  1901,  foil.)-  A  recent, 
yet  not  fully  accepted  view,  regards  the  Pelasgians  as  having  worked 
out  this  ci\-ilisation,  the  fruits  of  which  were  appropriated  by  the  true 
Hellenic  invaders  from  the  north. 


8  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

for  trading  with  the  natives.  Though  in  most  respects 
the  Greeks  were  then  as  barbarous  as  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians,  they  were  eager  to  learn  and  to  imitate  the 
ways  of  the  foreigners.  The  chieftains  along  the  east 
coast  welcomed  Asiatic  arts  and  artisans.  From  these 
strangers  they  gradually  learned  to  make  and  use  bronze 
tools  and  weapons,  and  to  build  in  stone.  Contented  in 
these  homes,  they  outgrew  their  fondness  for  roving. 
Skilled  workmen  from  the  East  built  walled  palaces  for 
the  native  chiefs;  artists  decorated  these  new  dwellings, 
painted,  carved,  and  frescoed,  made  vases  and  polished 
gems.  Those  chieftains  who  were  wise  enough  to  receive 
this  civilisation  gained  power  as  well  as  wealth  by  means 
of  it.  With  their  bronze  weapons  they  conquered  their 
uncivilised  neighbours,  and,  in  course  of  time,  formed 
small  kingdoms,  each  centring  in  a  strongly  fortified 
castle." 

The  contradictions  which  meet  us  in  all  accounts  of 
early  Greece  make  any  positive  hypothesis  untenable. 
But  they  do  give  us  an  insight  into  the  character  of  the 
Greek  sfenius  as  we  have  come  to  know  it.  There  is 
much  plausibility  in  the  view  that  these  Hellenes  were 
racially  connected  with  the  Celtic  peoples,  and  that  they 
were  not  originally  of  one  single  stock.  Restless,  brave, 
mercurial,  full  of  curiosity,  their  nomadic  life  for  many 
centuries  made  them  more  brilliant  than  stable.  Po- 
litically, they  also  afford  a  parallel  with  the  Celts,  in  that 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE  9 

they  lacked  the  national  cohesiveness  which  was  Roman. 
Their  seafaring  gave  them  a  larger  outlook  than  the 
Latins  had.  It  made  for  separation  rather  than  for 
unity.  On  the  other  hand,  it  stimulated  the  intellect, 
and  enhanced  the  qualities  of  imagination  and  specula- 
tion. To  the  last,  the  Greeks  were  adventurous,  ingen- 
ious, inquisitive,  and  ever  seeking  after  something  new  and 
interesting. 

The  antiquity  of  Greek  culture  explains  why  the  oldest 
monument  of  Hellenic  literature,  the  Homeric  epic,  is 
not  a  rude  specimen  of  the  poetic  art,  but  rather  a  bit  of 
exquisite  workmanship,  wrought  out  with  wonderful 
management  of  light  and  colour  and  melodious  sound. 
It  is  the  climax,  the  final  masterpiece,  of  epic  poetry. 
Although  the  Homeric  epics  tell  the  story  of  a  fairly  primi- 
tive people,  there  is  nothing  primitive  in  the  mode  of 
their  construction  or  the  deftness  of  touch  that  is  every- 
where to  be  discovered  in  them.  The  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey,  though  very  much  older,  assume  a  fairly  definite 
form  somewhere  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  when  writing 
was  first  generally  introduced  among  the  Greeks.  Recent 
scholarship  is  not  indisposed  to  view  these  two  poems  as 
representing  each  an  organic  whole,  however  numerous 
may  have  been  the  changes  which  both  underwent  in 
parts.^     It   does   not   concern   us,    indeed,   to   determine 

'  See  Blass,  Die  Interpolationen  in  der  Odyssee  (Halle,  1904);  and 
Brea!,  Four  Mieux  Connaitre  Homere  (Paris,  1906). 


lO  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

whether  there  actually  lived  an  individual  Homer.  The 
student  of  Classical  Philology  regards  the  Homeric  epic 
as  a  starting-point  from  which  to  trace  the  gradual  devel- 
opment of  intellectual  pursuits  among  the  Greeks  within 
that  period  of  time  when  their  history  can  be  tested  by 
undoubted  facts.  Before  the  general  use  of  writing,  there 
could  have  been  little  to  be  classed  under  the  name  of 
formal  scholarship,  although  for  fifteen  centuries  there 
was  an  evolution  of  the  arts  which  scholarship  endeavours 
to  study  and  explain.  Before  the  Homeric  period  there 
must  have  been  thousands  of  poets  who  became  masters 
of  the  lyric,  and  after  that  of  the  epic.  We  know  that 
Greek  tradition  held  Thrace  to  be  the  earliest  home  of 
this  semi-religious  literature,  associated  with  the  names  of 
mythical  bards  such  as  Orpheus,  Musaeus,  Eumolpus, 
and  Thamyris.  Finally,  we  know  that  the  centre  of 
cultivation  shifted  from  Thrace  to  the  more  genial  shores 
of  Ionia,  whence  came  the  completed  epic  which  is  as- 
cribed to  Homer. 

The  chief  importance  of  the  epos  for  our  present  pur- 
pose is  found  in  its  relation  to  literary  study,  to  criticism, 
and  even,  after  a  fashion,  to  scientific  speculation,  to 
religion,  and  to  philosophy.  The  part  which  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey  played  in  the  early  period  of  Greek 
education  was  extraordinary.  These  poems  were,  indeed, 
the  basis  of  all  training  that  was  not  purely  physical. 
In  the  schools,  which  we  know  to  have  existed  as  early 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        II 

as  700  B.C.,  Homer  was  read,  not  so  much  as  literature, 
but  as  an  ultimate  authority  on  history,  politics,  ethics, 
warfare,    medicine,    and    even   religion.     Questions  that 
involved  titles  to  lands  were  settled  by  an  appeal  to  the 
Homeric  poems,  which  were  consulted  according  to  the 
theory  of  their  plenary  inspiration.     In  the  Odyssey  this 
theory  is  in  fact  expressly  stated.     A  poet  is  one  who  is 
inspired  by  the  Muses;    and  the  bard  Phemius  says  to 
Odysseus:   "I   am  self-taught;    but   it  was   a  god  that 
breathed  into  my  mind  all  the  various  ways    of  song." 
A  touch  of  orientalism  is  found  in  the  notion  of  Demo- 
critus  (in  the  fifth  century,  B.C.),  to  the  effect  that  all 
great  poets  are  mad  —  that  is  to  say,  carried  away  by  a 
sort  of  divine  frenzy.     Such   a  belief  accounts  for  the 
place  which  Homer,  the  greatest  of  all  the  poets,  held  in 
the  intellectual  life  of  Hellas.     In  the  study  of  his  epics, 
we  find  the  germs  of  many  other  studies.     Lists  were 
made  of  the  unusual  words  contained  in  them.     The  rela- 
tions of  the  gods  to  each  other  and  to  mankind  were  all 
thought  to  be  explained  by  Homer.     An  apt  quotation 
from  the  Iliad  or  Odyssey  would  silence  an  opponent  in 
debate,  as  effectually  as  a  pointed  text  from  the  Bible 
would  end  a  controversy  among  the  Puritans.     Indeed, 
what  the  Hebrew  Bible  is  to  the  orthodox  Jews,  what 
the  New  Testament  is  to  the  orthodox  Protestant  Chris- 
tians, and  what  the  Koran  is  to  orthodox  Muhammadans, 
—  this  the  Homeric  poems  were  to  the  early  Greeks.     A 


12  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

reverence  for  Homeric  learning  was  entertained  among 
them  at  the  time  when  their  authentic  history  begins. 
Its  strong  influence  affected  the  minds  of  men  in  later 
centuries,  as  we  shall  presently  have  occasion  to  see. 
Even  in  our  own  days  its  existence  is  discernible  in  the 
minutely  critical  studies  which  modern  scholars  have 
made  regarding  every  topic  that  was  even  casually  touched 
upon  by  Homer.^  It  may  be  added  that  much  of  the 
same  inspiration  which  was  ascribed  to  the  author  of  the 
Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  was  also  attributed  to  the  minor 
poets,  commonly  called  the  Cyclic  Poets,  who  largely 
imitated  Homer  and  confined  themselves  within  a  certain 
round  or  cycle  of  tradition.  There  were  really  two  cycles, 
one  a  Mythic  Cycle,  relating  to  the  genealogies  of  the 
gods  and  the  battles  of  the  Titans  and  to  cosmogony; 
and  the  other  a  Trojan  Cycle,  based  upon  stories  con- 
nected with  the  Trojan  War.  The  most  celebrated  of  the 
Cyclic  poems  were  the  Cypria,  at  one  time  ascribed  to 
Homer,  but  later  to  Stasinus  or  Hegesias,  the  JEthiopis 
of  Arctinus,  and  the  Nostoi  of  Agias,  not  to  mention  the 
parodies  by  Pigres.^    There  were  likewise  the  so-called 

'See,  for  example,  Sej^mour,  Life  in  the  Homeric  Age,  with  the  bib- 
liography, pp.  xiii-xvi  (New  York,  1908)  ;  and  Adam,  The  Religious 
Teachers  of  Greece,  pp.  21-67  (Edinburgh,  1908). 

^The  chief  authority  for  the  CycUc  poets  is  the  Chrestomatheia  of 
Proclus  (41 2-485  A.D.)  in  the  extracts  preserved  by  Photius.  See  Welcker, 
Der  Epische  Cycliis  (Bonn,  1865);  Lawton,  The  Successors  of  Homer 
(New  York,  1898);  and  for  the  meaning  of  the  word  cyclicus,  a  paper 
by  D.  B.  Munro  in  The  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  (1883). 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        13 

Homeric  Hymns,  and  the  three  works  that  remain  to  us 
under  the  name  of  Hesiod  (c.  700  B.C.),  whose  Theogony 
is  the  oldest  poem  that  we  possess  on  Greek  Mythology. 

When  the  Greeks  came  to  know  much  more  than  they 
had  known  about  the  geography  of  the  world  in  which 
they  lived,  and  when  by  experience  they  grew  more 
thoroughly  enlightened  as  to  other  knowledge  which  came 
to  them  in  many  ways,  then  they  found  that  Homer  was 
not  to  be  accepted  literally  and  as  a  wholly  inspired 
source  of  wisdom.  Thus  there  arose  a  Higher  Criticism 
of  the  Homeric  writings  as  there  has  arisen  a  Higher 
Criticism  of  the  Bible.  When  so  much  depended  upon 
the  understanding  of  a  line  or  of  a  passage,  it  was  essen- 
tial that  every  one  should  be  quite  sure  that  the  line  or 
the  passage  was  correctly  quoted.  Even  the  variation  of 
a  single  word,  or  the  interpolation  of  a  single  verse,  might 
be  a  matter  of  extreme  importance.  Yet  the  Homeric 
poems  were  not,  at  first,  written  down  according  to  an 
accepted  text.  They  differed  in  many  places.  Parts  of 
them  were  recited,  detached  from  the  whole,  at  festivals 
and  public  entertainments,  by  the  rhapsodes  or  de- 
claimers.  Therefore,  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  a  recen- 
sion of  them  was  necessary  so  that  there  should  be 
standard  editions  of  the  Iliad  and  of  the  Odyssey. 

That  such  a  recension  was  actually  carried  out  is 
scarcely  to  be  doubted,  though  to  whom  it  is  due  no  one 
can  surely  say.     Tradition  ascribes  it  to  the  Athenian 


14  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

"  tyrant,"  the  brilliant  and  sagacious  Pisistratus,  who  is 
said  to  have  committed  the  work  (about  530  B.C.)  to  a 
commission  of  four  learned  Homeric  specialists.^  In  this, 
Pisistratus  is  said  to  have  followed  out  a  plan  conceived 
by  his  relative  and  predecessor,  Solon.  The  tradition 
referred  to  is  merely  a  tradition  and  is  based  only  upon 
the  authority  of  later  writers  such  as  Cicero,  Pausanias, 
Josephus,  Libanius,  and  Tzetzes.  Therefore  the  ascrip- 
tion of  this  standard  Homeric  text  to  Pisistratus  is  not 
necessarily  accurate.  It  has  been  the  custom  to  credit 
Pisistratus  with  an  extraordinary  number  of  innovations, 
—  political,  social,  literary,  and  artistic.  Thus,  he  is  said 
to  have  enforced  a  series  of  sumptuary  laws;  to  have  sup- 
plied the  poor  with  cattle  and  seed  so  that  they  might 
leave  Athens  and  betake  themselves  to  agriculture;  to 
have  erected  beautiful  buildings;  to  have  regulated  the 
religious  rites  and  to  have  instituted  the  superb  festival 

•  See  Flach,  Peisistratos  und  seine  litterarische  Thdtigkeil  (Tubingen, 
1885).  The  Greek  grammarian  Diomedes,  quoted  by  Villoison,  says 
that  a  sta£f  of  seventy  (or  seventy-two)  men  of  letters  took  part  in  the 
work.  It  has  been  noticed  in  modem  times  that  neither  Herodotus 
nor  Thucydides  nor  Plato  nor  Aristotle,  who  all  frequently  mention 
both  Homer  and  Pisistratus,  makes  any  allusion  whatever  to  this  al- 
leged recension  of  the  Homeric  text.  So  significant  is  this  omission, 
that  modem  students  of  the  subject  (for  example,  Wilamowitz)  are  dis- 
posed to  deny  that  the  story  about  Pisistratus  has  any  basis  of  fact  at 
all.  One  may  hold  a  more  moderate  opinion  and  regard  Pisistratus  as 
having  rearranged  the  text  for  purposes  of  recitation  at  the  Panathenaic 
festival,  yet  with  no  minute  consideration  of  particular  lines.  See 
infra,  p.  20. 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        1 5 

of  the  Greater  Panathensea;  to  have  encouraged  Thespis 
to  produce  his  primitive  tragedies  at  Athens,  thus  pro- 
moting the  Drama;  and  to  have  been  the  first  person  in 
Greece  to  collect  and  open  a  library  for  public  use.  Hence 
it  is  natural  that  the  establishment  of  a  standard  Homeric 
text  should  have  been  ascribed  to  Pisistratus.  In  any  case 
it  does  not  matter  whether  he  or  some  one  else  brought 
it  into  form.  There  is  reason  for  supposing  that  he  com- 
pelled the  public  declaimers  to  recite  the  different  portions 
of  the  poems  according  to  a  definite  arrangement ;  and 
indeed  that  a  recension  was  undertaken  in  his  time  is 
highly  probable,  since  the  quotations  from  Homer  made  by 
writers  prior  to  the  Alexandrian  period  exhibit  very  slight 
variations.  The  Alexandrians  themselves  made  few  im- 
portant changes.  We  may  be  confident  that  our  text  of 
Homer  is  substantially  identical  with  that  which  was 
read  five  hundred  years  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era.  Thus,  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  passages 
from  Homer  are  cited  by  twenty-nine  writers  after  and  in- 
cluding Herodotus.  They  amount  to  about  four  hundred 
and  eighty  lines,  but  they  contain  less  than  a  dozen  lines 
which  are  not  in  the  ordinary  text.^ 

If  Pisistratus  ever  made  an  Homeric  text,  it  was  not 
the  only  official  text  of  the  two  great  epics,  since  we 
also  hear  of  "  city  editions  "  or  "  civic  editions,"  which 

'  See  Ludwich,  Die  Homer-vulgata  als  voralexandrinisch  ermesen 
(Leipzig,  1898). 


1 6  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

were  standards  each  in  its  own  country/  The  important 
fact  is  that  at  so  early  a  period  there  should  be  found  a 
beginning  of  Text  Criticism  in  which,  as  now,  many 
sources  of  knowledge  must  have  been  drawn  upon  — 
chronology,  history,  geography,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
aesthetics,  more  especially  the  aesthetics  of  language. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  Solon  was  accused 
of  having  interpolated  a  line  in  the  Iliad  so  as  to  make 
it  appear  that  the  Athenians  had  taken  part  in  the  Trojan 
War,  and  that  Pisistratus  had  inserted  a  line  in  the  Odyssey 
so  as  to  bring  in  the  name  of  Theseus,  the  national  hero 
of  Athens.  We  have,  therefore,  as  early  as  the  sixth 
century,  indications  of  all  the  difficulties  which  beset  text 
critics  in  modern  times  —  variant  editions,  errors  due  to 
carelessness,  others  due  to  ignorance,  and  also  conscious  al- 
terations to  suit  the  purpose  of  the  transcriber.  Nor  was 
Homer  the  only  author  whose  text  suffered  in  this  way; 
for  there  is  a  story  to  the  effect  that  Onomacritus  was 
detected  in  altering  the  oracles  of  Musaeus  and  that  he 
was  punished  for  it. 

There  is  some  significance  in  the  legend  that  the  first  care- 
fully prepared  edition  of  Homer  was  made  in  Athens,  rather 

1  Seven  of  these  "  city  editions  "  are  noted  —  the  Massalotic,  the  Si- 
nopic,  the  Chian,  the  Cyprian,  the  Argive,  the  Cretan,  and  the  Lesbian. 
The  first  four  were  Ionic,  and  the  last  three  were  ^olic.  All  of  these 
editions  were  supposed  to  have  been  copies  made  from  the  archetype 
prepared  under  the  direction  of  Pisistratus.  The  Greek  term  for  "city 
editions"  is  dKddjeis  /card  Tr6Xetj. 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        1 7 

than  among  the  Asiatic  lonians,  who  had  represented 
a  higher  form  of  culture.  Athens  was  destined  to  be- 
come the  intellectual  centre  of  the  Greek  world,  though 
it  had  not  yet  won  supremacy.  Ionia  has  the  credit 
of  having  first  established  regular  schools  with  paid 
teachers  for  the  purpose  of  imparting  a  general  education. 
The  teaching  of  which  we  read  in  Homer  was,  of  course, 
physical  training  with  some  instruction  in  music  and 
medicine.  The  public  instruction  given  to  youths  in  the 
Doric  States  such  as  Sparta  and  Crete  had  very  much 
the  same  character.^  The  Bidiaei  and  Paedonomi,  under 
whose  care  the  Spartan  boy  was  placed  after  the  age  of 
seven,  trained  the  young  in  gymnastics,  in  the  use  of 
arms,  and  in  choral  singing.  For  such  literary  education 
as  a  man  was  expected  to  possess  (usually  only  reading, 
writing,  and  a  little  arithmetic)  he  depended  chiefly  upon  the 
instruction  which  was  given  by  his  parents.  It  is  stated 
by  Plutarch  that  the  semi-mythical  Lycurgus  brought 
copies  of  the  Homeric  poems  to  Sparta,  and  made  a 
knowledge  of  them  a  requirement  in  the  Spartan  schools; 
but  if  so,  this  must  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
travelled  in  Asia  Minor  and  had  introduced  at  home  a 
practice  which  he  had  observed  abroad.  Among  the 
lonians,  however,  literary  teaching  in  regular  Schools  is 
found  as  early  as  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  and  as  these 
schools  were  then   in   a  very   prosperous  condition   and 

'  See  Monroe,  Source  Book  of  the  History  of  Education  (Greek   and 

Roman  Period)  (New  York,  1901). 
c 


1 8  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

very  largely  attended,  they  must  have  been  established 
long  before.  Herodotus  (vi,  27)  mentions  a  boys'  school 
in  Chios  in  the  year  500  B.C.;  and  at  the  time  of  the  in- 
vasion of  Xerxes,  when  the  Athenians  left  their  own  city 
and  took  refuge  at  Trcezen,  one  of  the  first  things  they 
did  was  to  arrange  for  their  school  system  during  the 
period  of  their  temporary  exile.  ^  The  Mitylen^eans 
punished  disloyal  allies  by  depriving  them  of  the  right  to 
maintain  schools.  Charondas,  about  650  B.C.,  made  state 
provision  for  literary  instruction  in  Sicily.^ 

The  teaching  of  literature  appears  to  have  been  de- 
veloped, first  of  all,  as  an  adjunct  to  instruction  in  morals. 
The  earliest  intellectual  exercise  of  boys  at  school,  and 
probably  before  they  had  begun  to  attend  school,  was  the 
study  of  the  Homeric  poems.  This  anticipated  even  the 
learning  of  the  alphabet;  for  the  alphabet  was  first  taught 
by  the  jpafx/jbanaTij';,  while  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  were 
read  and  recited  to  growing  boys,  who  were  urged  to 
learn  them  gradually  by  heart.  But  the  early  apprecia- 
tion of  the  epics  was  not  a  literary  appreciation  at  all; 
and  to  understand  the  prominence  given  to  this  study,  we 
must  remember  the  peculiar  view  which  the  Greeks  took 
with  regard  to  Homer.  He  was  not  so  much  the  great 
poet,  the  master  of  heroic  verse.  He  was.  rather  a  moral 
teacher,  an   ethical  guide,  who  drew  his  characters  with 

'  Plutarch,  Themistocles ,  10. 
^  Diodorus  Siculus,  xii.  12. 


GENESIS    OF   PHILOLOGICAL    STUDIES    IN    GREECE        1 9 

a  conscious  purpose  of  exhibiting  in  their  actions  the 
quahties  that  men  should  emulate  or  shun.  As  late  as 
Horace  who,  like  all  Romans,  was  a  great  lover  of  the 
concrete,  we  find  this  same  thought  expressed. 

"  While  you  are  declaiming  at  Rome,"  he  says  to  his 
friend  Lollius,  "  I  have  been  reading  over  at  Praeneste 
the  writer  of  the  Trojan  War,  who  tells  us  better  and 
more  clearly  than  either  Chrysippus  or  Grantor  what  is 
noble  and  what  is  base,  what  is  expedient  and  what  is 
not." 

And  farther  on,  "  Again,  as  to  what  virtue  and  wis- 
dom are  able  to  effect,  he  (Homer)  has  set  before  us  a 
useful  model  in  the  person  of  Ulysses." 

The  strenuous  insistence  on  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
Homer  was  therefore  due,  first  of  all,  to  his  moral  teach-<: 
ing.  We  must  remember  also  that  the  formal  education 
given  in  school  was  much  less  valued  by  the  Greeks  than 
it  is  by  us.  Plato  says  in  his  Laws  that  a  knowledge  of 
writing  is  necessary  only  so  far  as  to  enable  one  barely 
to  write  and  read;  and  that  to  write  fast  or  with  elegance 
is  outside  of  the  range  of  ordinary  education.  There 
may  even  have  existed,  as  Mahaffy  suggests,  a  prejudice 
against  clear  and  regular  script,  because  it  would  recall 
the  writing  in  books  which  was  done  by  copyists  who 
were  slaves.  When  we  say  that  a  person  writes  "  a  clerkly 
hand  "  the  remark  is  not  altogether  complimentary.  Hence, 
the  average  Greek  probably  wrote  with  more  or  less  diffi- 


20  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 

culty,  and  did  not  have,  as  a  rule,  much  occasion  to  use 
the  accompHshment.  But  inasmuch  as  he  memorised 
most  of  his  learning,  he  was  the  more  deeply  saturated 
with  it. 

So  it  came  about  that  the  universal  familiarity  with 
Homer  resulted  in  a  very  general  criticism  of  the 
Homeric  poems.  As  Mr.  Saintsbury  well  says,  "  It  was 
impossible  that  a  people  so  acute  and  so  philosophically 
given  as  the  Greeks,  should  be  soaked  in  Homer  without 
being  tempted  to  exercise  their  critical  faculties  upon  the 
poems."  ^  Such  was  indeed  the  case;  and  thoughtful 
men  began  to  ask  themselves  whether  a  great  moral 
teacher  who  represented  the  gods  as  deceitful,  faithless, 
and  debauched  could  be  really  a  moralist  at  all.  Like- 
wise, contradictions  and  statements  were  pointed  out  which 
practical  knowledge  showed  to  be  untrue.  Then  began 
an  attempt  to  give  an  allegorical  or  a  rationalistic  inter- 
pretation of  Homer,  which  should  preserve  his  authority 
and  yet  reconcile  it  with  the  facts  of  human  life.  We 
find  traces  of  the  Solar  Myth  at  about  this  time,  and  in- 
genious interpretations  like  those  which  the  Rabbinical 
writers  have  given  of  portions  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  Here 
is  the  beginning  of  Literary  Criticism  —  though  not 
"  literary  "  in  the  rightful  sense,  for  it  had  to  do  chiefly 
with  mere  words  and  not  the  form  of  Homeric  and  other 
poetry.     Nevertheless,  it  was  a  beginning;  and  in  succeed- 

'  Saintsbury,  A  History  of  Criticism,  i.  pp.    10-12  (New  York,  1900). 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        21 

ing  centuries  it  became  aesthetic,  treating  literature  purely 
as  the  product  of  conscious  or  unconscious  art. 

It  was  in  Asia  Minor  that  this  early  criticism  had  its 
birth.  The  lonians  were  the  first,  perhaps,  to  study 
Homer  systematically.  They  were,  therefore,  the  first  to 
reject  his  mythical  interpretation  of  nature  in  the  effort 
to  discover  a  rational  and  physical  interpretation  of  it. 
They  inquired,  "  What  is  the  first  principle  and  source  of 
all  things?"  and  with  this  inquiry  Greek  Philosophy 
begins.  Before  Pisistratus  had  undertaken  to  make  a 
standard  edition  of  the  Homeric  text,  Thales,  Anaxi- 
mander,  and  Anaximenes,  all  of  Miletus,  and  Heraclitus 
of  Ephesus,  taught  the  intimate  connection  between  life 
and  matter,  the  one  dependent  on  the  other,  according 
to  the  doctrine  known  as  Hylozoism.  Thus  Thales 
[c.  640  B.C.)  believed  the  first  principle  to  be  water,  since 
moisture  is  necessary  to  life.  Anaximander  made  the 
first  principle  an  unknown  element  to  which  he  gave  the 
name  aTreipov,  from  which  by  eternal  motion  all  things 
were  produced.  Anaximenes  found  the  original  element 
to  be  air,  whence  came  everything  through  the  processes 
of  condensation  and  rarefaction.  On  the  other  hand, 
Heraclitus  (c.  500  b.c),  the  last  of  this  so-called  Ionian 
School,  taught  the  immanence  in  all  things  of  fire,  and 
the  doctrine  of  an  eternal  flux. 

Pythagoras  (c.  500  b.c.)  was  the  most  remarkable  of 
these  earlier  philosophers,  and  it  was  he  who  developed 


22  mSTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

a  new  form  of  religion  and  of  philosophy,  while  he 
was  the  first  great  mathematician  to  arise  among  the 
Greeks.  In  fact,  as  early  as  the  seventh  century,  mathe- 
matics began  to  be  studied,  (mainly  geometry)  which 
the  Greeks  learned  from  the  Egyptians.  Dr.  Cajori  re- 
marks: ^  "  Just  as  Americans  in  our  time  go  to  Germany 
to  study,  so  early  Greek  scholars  visited  the  land  of  the 
pyramids.  Thales,  CEnopides,  Pythagoras  ...  all  sat 
at  the  feet  of  the  Egyptian  priests  for  instruction.  While 
Greek  culture  is,  therefore,  not  primitive,  it  commands 
our  enthusiastic  admiration.  The  speculative  mind  of 
the  Greek  at  once  transcended  questions  pertaining 
merely  to  the  practical  wants  of  everyday  life.  It  pierced 
into  the  ideal  relations  of  things  and  revelled  in  the  study 
of  science  as  science."  ^ 

Thales  introduced  the  study  of  Geometry  into  Greece 
and  with  him  begins  the  study  of  scientific  Astronomy. 
The  attempt  to  square  the  circle  is  as  old  as  Anaxagoras. 
All  of  the  Ionic  philosophers  pursued  the  study  of  Mathe- 
matics. Pythagoras,  however,  stands  alone.  Around  the 
life  and  personality  of  this  great  genius  there  hangs,  as  it 
were,  a  mist  of  tradition  such  as  envelops  all  of  the  most 

'See  Allmann,  Greek  Geometry  from  Thales  to  Euclid  (Dublin,  1889); 
Tannery,  La  Geometric  Grecque  (Paris,  1887);  and  Cajori,  A  History  of 
Elementary  Mathematics  (New  York,  1907). 

^  An  abstract  of  a  history  of  geometry  in  Greece,  written  by  Eudemus, 
is  preserved  in  the  commentaries  by  Proclus  (412  a.d.)  on  the  first  book 
of  Euclid. 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        23 

remarkable  characters  of  history,  from  Moses  to  Napoleon. 
Pythagoras  was  born  in  the  island  of  Samos,  but  after 
visiting  Egypt  and  the  East,  he  finally  made  his  residence 
at  Crotona,  in  Southern  Italy,  where  he  established  a 
cult  the  members  of  which,  drawn  mainly  from  the  aris- 
tocratic class,  formed  a  brotherhood  under  the  leadership 
of  Pythagoras.  They  were  bound  by  a  vow  to  study  his 
theories  of  religion  and  philosophy.  Three  hundred  of 
them  formed  the  highest  caste;  and  they  were  admitted 
only  by  Pythagoras  himself,  who  judged  them  largely 
through  his  knowledge  of  physiognomy.  There  was  some- 
thing mystic  about  all  this,  for  they  took  an  oath  of  secrecy 
according  to  the  maxim  of  their  master:  "  Everything  is 
not  to  be  told  to  everybody."  Pythagoras  taught  them 
temperance,  self-control,  and  an  ethical  righteousness 
which  should  make  their  lives  reflect  "  the  music  of  the 
spheres,"  that  is  to  say,  the  order  and  harmony  of  the 
universe.  This  principle  of  harmony  ran  through  all  the 
Pythagorean  teaching,  which  comprised  music,  arith- 
metic, geometry,  and  astronomy.  There  is  a  story  which 
tells  how  he  discovered  the  relations  of  the  musical  scale 
by  accidentally  observing  the  various  sounds  produced 
by  hammers  of  different  weights  striking  upon  an  anvil, 
and  suspending  by  strings  other  weights  equal  to  those 
of  the  respective  hammers.  He  is  said  to  have  first  dis- 
covered the  so-called  Pons  Asinorum  in  geometry.  In 
Religion  he  taught  the  transmigration  of  souls  —  a  doc- 


24  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

trine  which  he  had  probably  learned  in  India.  The  essence 
of  all  things  is  Number,  according  to  his  teaching;  but  no 
existing  works,  bearing  the  name  of  Pythagoras,  are  gen- 
uine. His  influence  among  the  Italian  Greeks,  and  after- 
wards among  the  Athenians,  was  very  great;  so  that  the 
Pythagorean  cult  endured  for  many  centuries.*  Finally, 
in  the  sixth  century,  the  Eleatic  School  of  philosophy 
arose,  numbering  among  its  most  distinguished  teachers, 
Xenophanes,  already  mentioned  as  having  rejected  the 
Homeric  idea  of  God,  with  Parmenides  and  Zeno,  both 
of  whom  asserted  that  the  senses  cannot  teach  us  truth, 
but  that  verity  is  apprehended  only  by  the  mind.^ 

The  study  of  nature,  which  began  with  the  Ionian 
School,  led  to  the  origin  of  another  science.  Homer  had 
long  been  the  basis  of  geographical  knowledge.  On  his 
statements,  Hesiod  and  the  other  early  poets  had  depended. 
It  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that  interest  in 
geography,  so  far  as  it  had  existed  before  the  middle  of 
the  seventh  century,  was  spread  among  the  Greeks  en- 
tirely through  the  poems  of  Homer.  The  cliildren  in  the 
schools,  and  the  elders  who  heard  the  declamations  of  the 
rhapsodes,  thus  became  acquainted  with  the  cities,  rivers, 

^  Gleditsch,  Die  Pylhagoreer  (Posen,  1841);  Chaignet,  Pythagore  et 
la  Philosophie  Pylhagorienne  (Paris,  1873).  For  his  so-called  Golden 
Verses,  see  Gottling's  edition  of  Hesiod  (Gotha,  1843);  and  Schnee- 
berger,  Die  goldenen  Spriiche  des  Pythagoras  (Miinnerstadt,  1862). 

'Windelband,  History  of  Ancient  Philosophy,  pp.  46-52.  English 
translation    (New  York,  1899). 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE      25 

and  mountains  of  Greece,  and  (especially  from  the  Cata- 
logue of  Ships)  with  the  names  of  the  Hellenic  tribes. 
But  after  first-hand  knowledge  had  been  gained  by  travel, 
learned  men  began  to  formulate  a  more  exact  view  of 
physical  geography,  so  that  with  them  the  science  of 
Geography  began.^  Anaximander  of  Miletus  is  said  to 
have  made  upon  a  large  scale  a  map  of  the  world  as  he 
supposed  it  to  be.  His  compatriot,  Hecataeus  (c.  500  B.C.), 
constructed  a  bronze  plaque  or  possibly  a  globe,  ^  on  which 
the  sphere  of  the  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  courses  of  the  rivers 
were  given.  Maps  of  countries,  however,  had  not  yet  be- 
come important;  though  descriptive  notes  were  collected 
from  persons  who  travelled  on  business  or  from  curiosity. 
In  this  manner  the  data  necessary  for  the  preparation 
of  Descriptive  Geography  were  gradually  accumulated. 
To  this  the  great  contributors  were  Hanno  of  Carthage, 
who  explored  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  his  countryman 
Himilco,  and  such  of  the  Greeks  as  came  into  direct 
contact  with  the  Persians  and  Egyptians.^  Hecataeus 
corrected  the  chart  of  Anaximander,  adding  a  commen- 
tary of  which  fragments  are  preserved  in  quotations.* 
This  is  the  first  geographical  work  written  by  any  Greek. 

'  See  Bunbury,  A  History  of  Ancient  Geography  (London,  1883). 

''X'^^Kfos  Trd'tt^  (Herod,  v.  125). 

J  See  Antichan,  Les  Grands  Voyages  de  Decouvertes  des  Anciens  (Paris, 
1891);    and  infra,  pp.  34-35- 

^  Edited  by  C.  and  Th.  Miiller  (Paris,  1841).  See  the  monograph 
by  Schaffer  on  Hecataeus  (BerUn,  1885). 


26  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Writers  like  Anaximander  and  Hecataeus  committed  their 
observations  to  Prose.  Until  their  time,  poetry  had  been 
employed  even  in  philosophical  discussion  —  an  example 
followed  by  Lucretius  in  later  times  among  the  Romans. 
But  descriptive  geography  cast  aside  the  restraints  of 
metrical  form,  though  still  maintaining  a  highly  poetical 
character.  Only  by  degrees  did  it  become  true  prose, 
but  was  filled  with  phrases  and  turns  of  expression  bor- 
rowed from  the  epic  writers.  Those  who  employed  it 
were  known  as  Logographi;  ^  and  presently  they  began 
to  mingle,  with  their  descriptions  of  countries,  anecdotes 
and  remarks  not  strictly  geographical.  In  their  works, 
therefore,  we  find  the  beginnings  of  History,  which  was  at 
first  nothing  more  than  annals  very  simply  written.  Its 
true  development  comes  later  with  Herodotus,  who  skil- 
fully combined  descriptive  geography  with  the  story  of 
nations,  interwoven  also  with  personal  observations,  so 
that  he  deserves  the  name  which  Grafenhan  has  given 
him  of  "the  Humboldt  of  Antiquity."    - 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  out  of  the  study  and  criticism 
of  Homer  there  came  the  elements  of  many  kinds  of 
learning.  Homeric  study  fostered  mathematical,  geo- 
graphical, astronomical,  and  philosophical  research,  just  as 
it  led  other  poets  to  write  in  imitation  of  their  great 
model.  Though  Homer  gradually  ceased  to  be  viewed  as 
a  universal  teacher,  yet  the  devotion  of  the  Greeks,  so 

•  \o7O7/3c£0oi. 


GENESIS   OF   PHILOLOGICAL   STUDIES   IN   GREECE        27 

long  given  to  his  poetry,  exercised  an  influence  which  made 
it  endure  far  beyond  the  time  when  he  was  held  to  be 
a  wholly  inspired  writer.  His  great  lines  had  become  a 
part  of  every  man's  intellectual  equipment.  His  phrases, 
his  epithets,  his  many  gnomic  utterances,  were  as  firmly 
embedded  in  the  daily  speech  of  the  Greeks,  as  those  of 
the  English  Bible  and  of  Shakespeare  are  embedded  in 
our  own.  In  the  study  of  him  we  are  to  find  the  sources 
of  Greek  learning.  Afterward,  while  forsaking  him  as  a 
guide  in  morals  and  in  science,  men  still  turned  to  him  as 
a  great  master  of  language  and  an  unconscious  model 
of  strong  yet  harmonious  expression. 

[Bibliography.  —  In  addition  to  the  works  cited  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  see  also  Grafenhan,  Geschichte  der  Classischen  Philologie, 
i  (Bonn,  1843)  ;  Reinach,  Manuel  de  Philologie  Classique,  2d 
ed.  2  vols.  (Paris,  1885)  ;  Egger,  Essai  sur  VHistoire  de  la  Cri- 
tique chez  les  Grecs  (Paris,  18S7);  Sandys,  A  History  of  Classical 
Scholarship,  i.  pp.  1-51,  2d  ed.  (Cambridge,  1908);  Jebb,  Homer 
(Glasgow,  1887);  Schomann,  Griechische  AlterthUmer ,  4th  ed. 
(Berlin,  1897);  Browne,  Handbook  of  Homeric  Stiidy  (London,  1905); 
Cara,  Gli  Hethei  Pelasgi  (Rome,  1902);  E.  CMXthxs,  History  oj 
Greece,  Eng.  trans.,  5  vols.  (New  York,  1868-1872);  Mahaflfy, 
What  have  the  Greeks  done  for  Modern  Civilisation  ?  (New  York 
and  London,  1909).] 


II 

THE    PR.^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD 

(500-322    B.C.) 

Throughout  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  suprem- 
acy in  Greek  culture  had  been  held  by  the  lonians  of 
Asia  Minor.  To  them  were  due  the  intellectual  efforts 
which  have  been  described  in  the  preceding  chapter.  In 
Hellas  proper,  however,  both  Athens  and  Sparta  had 
achieved  a  prominence  which  was  full  of  latent  possibili- 
ties. The  wise  and  temperate  rule  of  Solon  and  Pisis- 
tratus  in  Athens,  and  the  institutions  which  at  Sparta 
were  ascribed  traditionally  to  Lycurgus,  had  fitted  each  of 
these  States  to  play  the  important  roles  by  which  they 
are  best  known  in  history,  Athene  and  Sparta  were 
different  in  almost  every  respect.  Athens  was  democratic, 
brilliant,  and  given  first  of  all  to  intellectual  activity. 
Sparta  was  aristocratic,  subjected  to  a  strict  discipline, 
and  caring  first  of  all  for  warlike  power.^  These  two 
States  had  been  gradually  acquiring  control  over  the 
territories  which  touched  their  own;  so  that  in  the  sixth 
century   they   became   possessed   of   a   civilisation   based 

'  See  Jannet,  Les  Institutions  Sociales  .  .  .  a  Sparte,  2d  ed.  (Paris, 
1880). 

28 


THE    PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  29 

upon  strength  of  body  and  mind,  and  ripe  for  the  further 
cultivation  which  was  to  be  developed  in  them. 

It  was  in  the  year  500,  that  a  darkly  threatening  cloud 
began  to  loom  over  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor.     Their 
proximity  to  Persia  had  always  been  a  danger.     Loving 
liberty,  they  gradually  resented  the  burden  of  a  despotism 
which  the  Persians    fostered   by  imposing  petty  tyrants 
upon    communities   which    had    been   wholly    free.      In 
the   year  500,  their    smouldering   discontent   broke    out 
into  a  flame.     There  was  a  general  uprising  of  the  Ionian 
cities.     A  republic  was  proclaimed  in  Miletus.     Soon  the 
cities  on  the  Hellespont  and  almost  the  whole  of  Caria 
and  Cyprus  joined  in  a  revolt.     An  appeal  for  help  was 
made  to  the  Western  Greeks;    and  though  Athens  and 
Eretria  were  the  only  States  to  give  immediate  aid  by 
sending  a  small  fleet,  this  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
great    Persian    Wars   which    constitute  an  epoch   in  the 
history  of  Greece  and  of  the  world.     For  the  moment, 
the  Ionian  fleet  was  shattered  by  the  Persian  allies  from 
Egypt  and  Phoenicia.     Miletus,  after  a  siege  of  six  years 
(500-494  B.C.),  was  taken  and  destroyed  in  the  madness 
of  a  frightful  vengeance.     The  whole  of  Ionia  was  ravaged 
with    oriental    cruelty.     It    was   then  that  Athens  stood 
forth   as  the   champion   of   the   race;    and    against  her 
Darius,  "  the  great  king,"  launched  two  vast  expeditions 
of   ships   and   men.     The   first   was   wrecked   at   Athos. 
The  second  came  to  a  disastrous  end  on  the  plain  of 


30  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Marathon  (490  B.C.).  One  hundred  thousand  Persians 
under  Datis  and  Artaphernes  were  pitted  there  against 
ten  thousand  Athenians  under  Miltiades.  The  Asiatics 
were  routed  with  great  loss,  and  the  Athenian  victory  sent 
a  thrill  of  triumph  throughout  all  Hellas. 

Modern  historians  believe  that  the  exploit  of  the  Athe- 
nians was  greatly  exaggerated  then,  and  that  it  has  been 
misunderstood  ever  since.  Professor  K.  F.  Geldner  says, 
"  Probably  the  Greeks,  after  having  avoided  battle  for  a 
long  time,  fell  upon  the  Persians  as  they  were  departing, 
and  especially  after  their  powerful  cavalry  had  already 
embarked."  ^  If  the  able  and  energetic  Darius  had  com- 
manded in  person,  the  result  would  doubtless  have  been 
different.  Making  all  allowances,  however,  it  was  in 
effect  a  victory  for  Athens,  since  the  Persians  abandoned 
the  campaign  and  returned  to  Asia.  Therefore,  Athens 
leaped  at  once  to  a  position  of  great  influence  which  was 
enhanced  when,  ten  years  later,  the  new  Persian  king, 
Xerxes,  sought  vengeance.  An  enormous  army  under 
his  command  marched  through  Macedonia  and  Thrace, 
and  an  overwhelming  fleet  sailed  forth  to  Thessalonica. 
The  Spartans,  who  now  rushed  to  arms,  suffered  the 
glorious  defeat  of  Thermopylae.  The  Athenian  fleet 
routed  the  Persians  off  Salamis;  while  both  Athenians 
and  Spartans  united  in  shattering  the  disordered  troops 
of  Persia  behind  their  fortifications  at  Platasa.  Finally, 
*  See  also  Schauer,  Die  Schlacht  bei  Marathon  (Berlin,  1893). 


THE   PRiE- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  3 1 

the  lonians,  on  the  same  day,  being  encouraged  by  the 
sight  of  Grecian  ships,  shook  off  once  more  the  shackles 
of  their  servitude  and  destroyed  the  sixty  thousand  men 
who  remained  out  of  the  great  host  that  had  been  led  forth 
by  Xerxes.^ 

The  two  Persian  Wars  may  seem  to  have  had  no  direct 
relation  to  the  history  of  Classical  Philology;  yet  in  fact, 
by  compelling  the  Greeks  to  put  forth  all  their  power, 
these  splendid  triumphs  stimulated  them  into  extraor- 
dinary activity  wherever  the  race  was  represented.^  Such 
a  stimulation  is  the  result  of  every  great  war,  and  it  may 
well  serve  as  a  vindication  of  many  historic  struggles 
which  have  cost  so  heavily  in  human  life  and  in  apparently 
wasted  treasure.  The  Punic  Wars  led  at  Rome  to  the  first 
real  flowering  of  Italian  genius.  The  Civil  Wars  which 
ravaged  Italy  in  a  later  century  ended  with  the  golden 
triumphs  of  the  Augustan  Age.  France  was  never  so 
glorious,  intellectually,  as  in  the  battle-years  under  Louis 
XIV,  and  again  amid  the  Napoleonic  Wars.  The  heroic 
struggle  of  England  against  Spain  made  the  Elizabethan 
Period  superbly  memorable  in  the  annals  of  literature  and 
science;  and  so  did  her  stubborn,  unrelenting  contest  with 

'  See  Cox,  The  Greeks  and  the  Persians  (New  York,  1897). 

'  Note,  for  example,  the  remarkable  activity  displayed  by  the 
Athenians  in  rebuilding  and  enlarging  their  city's  walls.  Men  of  every 
station,  women,  and  even  children,  under  the  urgent  advice  of  the  mighty 
Themistocles,  engaged  in  this  work,  tearing  down  temples  and  even 
tombs  to  afford  material  for  the  walls. 


32  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  Corsican  Emperor,  when  at  times  she  stood  entirely 
alone,  with  a  haughty  confidence  in  her  ultimate  success. 
Warfare  on  a  great  scale  brings  into  play  all  the  energies 
of  men,  both  physical  and  mental.  It  inspires  them  alike 
by  its  victories  and  by  its  defeats.  It  leads  nations  to 
cast  aside  their  inglorious  love  of  ease  and  lets  the  fierce 
joy  of  conflict  stir  at  once  the  senses,  the  intellect,  and 
the  imagination. 

Hence  it  is  that  we  find  in  the  Persian  Wars  the  begin- 
ning of  a  great  and  splendid  career  for  the  Hellenic 
States,  and  most  of  all  for  Athens,  which  had  won  such 
brilliant  victories  in  the  field  as  to  rouse  Hellenic  pride 
and  to  make  the  city  of  the  violet  crown  the  centre  of  all 
Hellas,  in  arts  as  well  as  arms.  We  must  now  look  for 
the  rise  of  men  who  were  really  great,  an^  for  the  develop- 
ment of  those  studies  which  had  been  only  nebulously 
visible  in  the  two  preceding  centuries.  Certain  of  the 
men  who  became  famous  early  in  this  period,  which  ex- 
tends from  the  outbreak  of  the  Persian  Wars  to  the  death 
of  Aristotle,  won  their  chief  distinction  through  the  in- 
spiration which  had  come  to  them  because  of  the  Persian 
assault  on  Greece.  Conspicuous  among  these  was  the 
Theban  Pindar,  greatest  of  all  the  lyric  poets.  The 
Thebans  were  jealous  of  Athens;  yet  Pindar  was  no  local 
poet,  but  the  laureate  of  the  whole  Hellenic  race;  and  his 
exultation  over  the  defeat  of  the  Persians  led  him  to  pour 
forth  vivid,  joyous  lines,  ringing  with  the  note  of  patriotic 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  33 

pride.  Because  of  this,  his  fellow-Thebans  imposed  on 
him  a  heavy  fine,  which  the  Athenians  paid  back  to  him 
twofold  besides  erecting  a  statue  in  his  honour. 

The  mention  of  Pindar  leads  us  to  note  that  Lyric 
Poetry  was  first  cultivated  with  conscious  art  among  the 
Cohans  and  the  Dorians.  The  lyric  in  general  is  the 
most  primitive  form  of  poetry,  and  it  must  have  existed  in 
the  earliest  ages,  at  least  in  a  rude  form,  for  it  is  the  spon- 
taneous utterance  of  emotion  —  at  first  absolutely  individ- 
ual self-expression,  a  concomitant  of  the  primitive  dance,  a 
vocal  expression  of  the  "  play  instinct,"  seeking  naturally 
after  rhythmic  movement.^  This  originally  expressed  itself 
in  the  trochaic  measure,  which  is  the  primitive  metrical 
form  among  all  peoples.  Then  was  developed  very  grad- 
ually the  dactylic  hexameter  which  we  find  in  Homer.  Side 
by  side  with  this  hexameter,  however,  the  lighter  lyrical 
movement  was  cultivated  in  song.  Elegiac  and  Iambic 
Poetry  forms  a  transition  from  epic  to  lyric  composition, 
and  was  so  known  to  the  lonians.  Purely  lyrical  or 
Melic  Poetry,  which  was  verse  intended  to  be  sung  to  a 
musical  accompaniment,  was  not  Ionic,  but  first  received 
artistic  shape  from  Terpander  of  Antissa  in  Lesbos  as 
early  as  700  B.C.  In  the  ^^olic  lyric,  Alcaeus  of  Mitylene 
(later  imitated  by  Horace) ,  and  his  contemporary,  Sappho, 
gave  it  a  complete  and  varied  form.     So  the  jovial  poems 

'See  W.  Scherer,  Poetik  (Berlm,  18S8);    and  Peck,  Literature  (New 
York,  1908). 

D 


34  mSTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

of  Anacreon  (550  B.C.)  were  composed  earlier  than 
Pindar's  time.  Yet  it  was  Pindar,  a  Dorian,  who  raised 
choral  poetry  to  its  highest  form  at  the  time  of  the  Persian 
Wars,  together  with  Simonides  and  his  nephew,  Bacchyl- 
ides.^ 

The  splendid  victories  of  Hellas  over  its  eastern 
foes  led  Herodotus  of  Halicarnassus  in  Asia  Minor  to 
write  his  remarkable  narrative  in  nine  books  at  a  date 
which  is  uncertain,  but  which  must  have  been  about  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  Herodotus,  a  great 
traveller,  a  keen  observer,  a  collector  of  interesting  facts, 
has  been  styled  "  the  Father  of  History."  We  have  seen, 
however,  that  history  of  a  sort  had  been  written  by  the 
Logographi.^  It  was  Herodotus  who  cast  aside  the  dry 
annalistic  form  and  wrote  in  a  prose  style  that  is  at 
once  simple,  attractive,  and  highly  picturesque,  for  it 
retains  a  deep  tinge  of  poetic  colouring.  This  genial, 
learned,  and  yet  pleasing  writer  took  for  the  subject  of 
his  history  the  Persian  Wars.  It  is,  indeed,  a  great 
prose  epic  of  the  conflict  between  Hellas  and  the  East, 
as  the  first  sentence  of  the  first  book  shows:  — 

"  This  is  a  publication  of  the  researches  of  Herodotus 
of  Halicarnassus,  to  the  end  that  the  deeds  of  men  may 
not  be  obliterated  by  time,  and  that  the  great  and  won- 

*  See  Mattel,  Die  griechischen  Lyriker  (Berlin,  1892);  and  the  intro- 
duction to  Smyth's  Greek  Melic  Poets  (New  York,  1900). 
^  See  p.  26. 


THE   PR.E- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  35 

derful  achievements  wrought  both  by  Greeks  and  by  bar- 
barians may  not  be  divested  of  their  glory  —  and,  more- 
over, to  explain  the  cause  which  led  them  to  wage  war 
upon  each  other." 

Contemporary  with  Herodotus  was  Hellanicus  of  Mity- 
lene,  of  whose  works  only  fragments  remain.  Though  he 
lived  to  a  very  old  age,  dying  in  406  B.C.,  he  had  none  of 
the  literary  charm  of  the  new  prose.  Nevertheless,  he 
was  the  first  writer  to  introduce  something  like  a  chrono- 
logical arrangement  into  the  traditional  records  of  history 
and  mythology;  and  his  views  regarding  them  were  ac- 
cepted for  more  than  a  century  after  his  death.  He 
likewise  was  a  profound  student  of  Genealogy.  His 
records,  though  having  little  literary  value,  were  of  much 
service  to  the  later  historians;  while  the  notes  of 
Herodotus  made  during  his  extensive  travels  were  a  rich 
mine  for  writers  on  Descriptive  Geography. 

Just  as  the  Persian  Wars  had  given  Herodotus  a  theme, 
so  the  Peloponnesian  War  (431-404  B.C.)  inspired  the 
greatest  historian  who  has  ever  written.  This  was  Thu- 
cydides  (471-  c.  399  B.C.),  an  Athenian  who  wrote  a  history 
of  this  epoch-making  struggle  waged  between  the  two 
leading  States  of  Hellas  for  the  supremacy  of  the  race,  — 
Athens  and  her  allies  on  the  one  side,  and  Sparta  and  her 
allies  on  the  other.  Thucydides  was  a  man  of  wealth  and 
character.  His  fine  intellect  had  been  cultivated  until  it 
became  an  instrument  of  remarkable  power,  delicacy,  and 


36  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

finish.  He  had  on  the  one  hand  the  scientific  spirit, 
and  on  the  other  hand  an  almost  unrivalled  gift  of  literary 
expression.  When  the  war  broke  out,  he  was  forty  years 
of  age,  with  all  his  faculties  at  their  very  highest;  and 
thus,  most  naturally,  the  history  which  he  produced  in 
eight  books  ^  has  become  what  he  desired  it  to  be,  a  pos- 
session for  all  time  {Krrj/xa  e?  det).  Herodotus  had 
written  with  great  charm  of  style.  His  narrative  was 
illumined  by  anecdote  and  the  narration  of  curious  facts. 
He  was  a  prose  poet.  Thucydides,  on  the  other  hand, 
combined  judicial  impartiality  with  a  manly,  moving 
eloquence.  Lord  Macaulay  said  that  his  prose  was  the 
finest  prose  that  has  ever  yet  been  written  by  any  man ;  ^ 
and  this  in  spite  of  what  to  the  modern  mind  seems  often 
to  be  extreme  obscurity.  His  impartiality  is  the  more 
remarkable  in  that  he  was  writing  contemporaneous  his- 
tory, and  that  he  was  himself  an  Athenian  and  took  part 
in  the  war.  To  quote  Dr.  F.  B.  Jevons:  "  There  is 
hardly  a  literary  production  of  which  posterity  has  enter- 
tained a  more  uniformly  favourable  estimate  than  the 
history  of  Thucydides.  This  high  distinction  he  owes  to 
his  undeviating  fidelity  and  impartiality  as  a  narrator; 
to  the  masterly  concentration  of  his  work,  in  which  he 

'  The  eighth  book  is  incomplete  and  is  by  some  regarded  as  not  the 
worli  of  Thucydides  himself. 

^  Macaulay  also  said  of  himself  that  while  he  might  perhaps  dare  to 
believe  that  he  could  equal  the  prose  of  any  other  writer,  he  would  never 
attempt  to  rival  the  seventh  book  of  Thucydides. 


THE    PR^-ALEXAISTDRIAN   PERIOD  37 

is  content  to  give  in  a  few  simple  yet  vivid  expressions 
the  facts  which  it  must  have  often  taken  him  weeks  or 
even  months  to  collect,  sift,  and  decide  upon;  to  the 
sagacity  of  his  political  and  moral  observations  in  which 
he  shows  the  keenest  insight  into  the  springs  of  human 
action  and  the  mental  nature  of  man;  and  to  his  un- 
rivalled descriptive  power.  .  .  ,  Thucydides  when  he 
undertook  to  record  the  present,  thereby  deliberately 
elected  to  confine  himself  to  efficient  causes.  This  pref- 
erence for  efficient  causes  and  for  scientific  history,  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  term,  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
positive  nature  of  his  history  —  that  is  to  say,  with  his 
perpetual  endeavour  to  record  facts  and  to  distinguish 
them  from  inferences  drawn  from  facts." 

The  utmost  efforts  of  modern  criticism  have  been  un- 
able to  shake  the  wonderful  structure  of  his  history.  In 
this  respect  he  is  to  be  compared  with  Gibbon.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  while  Niebuhr  is  popularly  said 
to  have  first  established  the  scientific  principles  of  histori- 
cal investigation,  Gibbon  anticipated  Niebuhr  in  practice 
just  as  he  himself  had  been  anticipated  by  Thucydides 
more  than  two  thousand  years  before.^ 

A  contemporary  of  Thucydides,   Xenophon,  who  was 

*  See  Miiller-Striibing  in  the  Jahrhuch  filr  Philologie,  cxxxi.  289  foil. ; 
and  Classen's  Introduction  to  his  edition  of  Thucydides,  vol.  i.  2d  ed. 
(Berlin,  1897);  Forbes,  The  Life  and  Method  of  Thucydides  (London, 
1895);  and  Jevons,  A  History  of  Greek  Literature,  pp.  327-348  (New 
York,  1897). 


38  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

also  an  Athenian,  is  the  third  great  historian  to  give  lustre 
to  the  Prae-AIexandrian  Period.  Serving  as  a  mercenary 
in  a  Greek  force  raised  by  Cyrus  the  Persian,  he  recorded 
his  experiences  in  the  Anabasis,  a  work  which  continues 
to  be  read  in  our  secondary  schools  both  for  the  sim- 
plicity and  vivacity  of  its  narrative,  and  for  the  facts 
observed  by  Xenophon  and  faithfully  recorded  in  the 
seven  books  which  make  up  the  work.  Xenophon  as  an 
historian  is  inferior  to  Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  but 
he  is  an  admirable  writer,  as  his  persistent  popularity 
well  shows.  Besides  the  Anabasis,  he  wrote  a  history  of 
Greece  (Hellenica)  which  practically  completed  the  un- 
finished work  of  Thucydides,  unlike  whom  he  wrote 
with  a  strong  bias,  in  violent  contrast  with  the  stern  im- 
partiality of  his  predecessor.^  Xenophon  did  not  confine 
himself  to  historical  writing,  but  composed  treatises  which 
had  to  do  with  Political  Science  (the  Lacedcemonian  Polity, 
the  Cyropcedia,  and  On  the  Athenian  Finances)  as  well 
as  quasi-ethical  monographs,  the  most  famous  of  which 
is  the  Memorabilia  of  Socrates.  Xenophon  writes  in  a 
dialect  which  is  not  purely  Attic,  owing  to  the  fact  of  his 
long  and  frequent  absences  from  his  native  country.^ 

In  the  histories  of  Thucydides  and  Xenophon  there  are 
introduced  set  speeches,  conventionally  supposed  to  have 
been  delivered  by  generals  to  their  troops,  by  statesmen 

*  See  A.  Holm,  Griechische  Geschichte;  Eng.  trans.  (London,  1894-99). 
^  See  Alfred  Croiset,  Xenophon,  son  Caradcre  et  son  Talent  (Paris, 
1873)- 


THE   PR^- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  39 

to  deliberative  assemblies,  by  ambassadors  and  by  dema- 
gogues. These  speeches  do  not  pretend  to  be  authentic 
records.  They  are  inserted  partly  to  enliven  the  narrative 
by  interspersing  it  with  personal  touches,  and  more  par- 
ticularly to  sum  up  effectively  and  within  a  short  compass 
the  opinions  or  arguments  which  the  speakers  might  have 
been  supposed  to  hold  and  to  utter.  They  are  true  in 
substance  though  not  authentic  in  form.  Their  occur- 
rence in  historical  writing  shows  that,  during  the  fifth 
century.  Oratory  had  become  an  art.  Of  course,  a  certain 
kind  of  oratory,  rude  and  extemporaneous,  must  have 
been  known  far  back  in  the  prehistoric  period,  since 
oratory  is  one  of  the  accomplishments  which  make  for 
statesmanship.  The  primitive  chieftain  undoubtedly  ha- 
rangued his  followers  when  occasion  arose.  Even  in  the 
poetry  of  Homer  there  are  speeches  set  down  in  hexameter 
verse.  But  this  untutored  oratory  was,  as  Professor 
Sears  describes  it,  merely  "  protoplasmic  eloquence." 
The  psychological  basis  of  it  was  not  understood.  The 
graces  of  external  form  were  not  yet  taught  by  precept. 
Such  power  as  oratory  had,  came  from  strong  feeling  and 
the  gift  which  some  possess  of  swaying  the  minds  and 
imaginations  of  their  hearers  by  communicating  to  them 
something  of  their  own  passion.  By  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century,  however,  educated  men  began  to  recognise  that 
the  gift  of  eloquence,  the  end  of  which  is  persuasion, 
could  be  acquired;  so  that  in  a  philosophical  treatise  by 


40  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Diogenes  of  Apollonia  there  is  found  embodied,  "  like  a 
trilobite  in  limestone,"  the  following  rhetorical  injunction, 
"  It  appears  to  me  that  every  one  who  begins  a  discourse 
ought  to  state  the  subject  with  distinctness,  and  to  make 
the  style  simple  and  dignified."  ^  In  fact,  the  Greeks, 
who  were  essentially  a  nation  of  talkers,  expected  the 
account  of  a  man's  actions  to  be  accompanied  and  ex- 
plained by  his  spoken  words,  so  that  all  might  judge  of 
his  intellectual  and  moral  character.  Hence  it  was  that  at 
the  time  of  the  Persian  Wars,  eloquence  came  to  be  highly 
valued  as  indispensable  to  the  statesman,  the  diplomat, 
and  the  commander  of  armies.  Oratory,  or,  to  use  the 
Greek  term,  Rhetoric  {prjTopLKrj),  thus  arose,  comprising 
both  the  practical  and  the  theoretical  art  of  speaking.  So 
earnestly  was  it  cultivated  that  it  came  to  be  called  at  last 
"the  art  of  arts."  Its  development  was  one  of  the  steps 
which  accompanied  the  decline  of  poetry  and  the  rise  of 
prose.  Just  as  the  lyric  supplanted  the  epic,  and  pictur- 
esque prose  narrative  was  gradually  preferred  to  poetry,  so 
oratory  —  a  still  further  remove  from  purely  imaginative 
composition  —  helped  to  assimilate  literature  with  practical 
life.  Its  rapid  growth  was  due,  of  course,  to  the  spread 
of  democracy  by  which  the  government  of  the  State  be- 
came the  gift  of  the  assembled  people.  To  dominate  the 
reason,  the  impulses,  and  the  prejudices  of  the  people  were 
at  last  the  chief  functions  of  the  art  of  oratory. 

'  See  Sears,  The  History  of  Oratory,  ch.  i.  (Chicago,  1903). 


THE    PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  4I 

Already  for  the  training  of  legal  and  judicial  pleading, 
a  definite  though  imperfect  system  had  been  set  forth. 
Cicero  ^  ascribes  it  to  the  Sicilian  Greeks,  who  were  famous 
in  antiquity  for  their  ready  wit,  their  love  of  highly  coloured 
language,  and  their  passion  for  subtle  argument.  The 
first  manual  professing  to  instruct  men  in  the  art  of  per- 
suasive speaking  is  said  to  have  been  written  by  Corax 
of  Syracuse  in  Sicily  early  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  With 
this  date  then  begins  the  formal  development  of  the  art  of 
Rhetoric.  Corax  opened  a  school  at  Syracuse  in  which 
he  taught  the  principles  laid  down  in  his  Te;\;f7;;  and 
his  pupil,  Tisias,  of  whom  little  is  known,  made  some 
additions  to  the  rules  of  Corax."  Gorgias  of  Leontini 
(485-380  B.C.),  probably  a  pupil  of  Tisias,  carried  the  study 
of  rhetoric  to  Hellas  proper,  whither  he  went  as  an  am- 
bassador to  ask  for  protection  against  the  encroachments 
of  Syracuse.  From  that  time  he  had  a  residence  in  Athens 
and  another  in  the  city  of  Larissa  in  Thessaly,  winning 
widespread  fame  both  as  a  public  speaker  and  as  a  practi- 
cal teacher  of  rhetoric.  So  far  as  any  evidences  remain  of 
the  teaching  of  Gorgias,  it  seems  plain  that  his  rules  looked 
to  a  highly  artificial  and  meretricious  style  of  oratory.^ 

'  Brutus,  46. 

'These  rules  divided  an  oration  into  five  parts:  (i)  proem,  (2)  narra- 
tive, (3)  arguments,  (4)  subsidiary  remarks,  and  (5)  peroration.  Both 
Corax  and  Tisias  made  much  of  the  value  of  what  they  called  etV-6s, 
that  is  to  say,  the  semblance  to  truth  which  in  an  oration  makes  the 
whole  of  an  argument  appear  plausible  and  therefore  possesses  an  appeal 
to  man's  sense  of  what  is  just  and  right. 

*Two  orations  ascribed  to  him  are  extant.     See  Blass,  pp.  44-72. 


42  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Studied  antitheses,  a  profusion  of  simile  and  metaphor, 
apostrophe,  and  other  figures,  together  with  a  carefully 
balanced  rhythm,  must  have  made  his  most  finished  elo- 
quence resemble  the  so-called  Euphuism  of  John  Lyly  and 
his  fellow-Elizabethans.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  foreshadowing 
in  Greece  of  the  so-called  Asiatic  style  of  eloquence 
adopted  in  later  times  by  some  of  the  Roman  orators.  At 
Athens,  however,  a  less  affected  mode  of  eloquence  pre- 
vailed. There  were  great  orators  who  were  conspicuous 
during  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  and  whose 
manly,  noble  eloquence  (the  Attic  style)  gained  little  from 
teachings  such  as  those  of  Gorgias. 

The  Age  of  Pericles  —  the  noblest  statesman  whom 
Greece  produced  —  was  a  period  of  great  splendour.  Peri- 
cles adorned  and  enriched  the  city  with  the  wealth  con- 
tributed by  the  allied  States.  Athens  to  him  meant 
Greece  just  as  Paris  to  the  French  people  has  long  meant 
France.  Under  his  patronage,  Greek  architecture  and 
sculpture  reached  perfection.  He  planned  the  Parthenon, 
the  Erechtheum,  the  Odeon,  and  many  like  magnificent 
public  edifices.  He  encouraged  literature  as  well  as  the 
other  arts.  He  was  the  centre  of  a  splendid  group,  in 
which  were  Thucydides,  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  Euripi- 
des, Anaxagoras,  Zeno,  Protagoras,  Pindar,  and  the  great 
sculptors  Phidias  and  Myron.  Athens  was  brilliant  with 
gorgeous  festivals  and  crowned  with  the  laurels  of  military 
glory.     The  noblest  figure  of  all  was    Pericles    himself. 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN  PERIOD  43 

Though  Thucydides  opposed  him,  he  generously  records 
the  fact  that  Pericles  never  did  anything  unworthy  of  his 
high  position,  that  he  neither  flattered  the  people  nor 
oppressed  his  private  enemies,  and  that  with  all  his  un- 
limited command  of  public  money,  he  was  personally  in- 
corruptible/ Gorgias  is  said  to  have  instructed  both 
Pericles  and  Thucydides,  but  the  first  Athenian  to  apply 
the  rules  of  rhetoric  practically  in  speaking  before  the  public 
assemblies  and  the  courts  was  Antiphon  (480-41 1  B.C.) .  He 
was  also  the  first  to  publish  speeches  as  models  for  rhetori- 
cal study.  If  we  examine  these  and  the  orations  inter- 
woven in  the  history  of  Thucydides,  we  find  that  they 
exhibit  a  certain  self-consciousness  which  is  fatal  to  effective 
oratory.  Lysias  (458-c.  378  B.C.)  shows  purity  of  style  and 
grace,  though  he  is  lacking  in  energy.  Isocrates  (436-338 
B.C.)  is  rightly  regarded  as  the  father  of  artistic  oratory, 
properly  so  called,  and  by  his  mastery  of  style  he  has  in- 
fluenced oratorical  diction  throughout  all  succeeding  ages.^ 

'Lloyd,  The  Age  of  Pericles,  2  vols.  (London,  1875);  and  Abbott, 
Pericles  (London,  1891). 

2 Isocrates  (Milton's  "Old  Man  Eloquent"  and  Cicero's  "Father  of 
Eloquence")  was  perhaps  as  well  known  for  his  rhetorical  teaching  as 
for  his  practical  application  of  it.  He  wrote  speeches  to  be  delivered 
by  others,  and  he  gave  instruction  at  the  rate  of  1000  drachmas,  or  about 
$250,  for  a  course  of  lessons,  and  he  often  had  a  hundred  pupils  at  a 
time,  yielding  a  revenue  equivalent  to  $25,000.  The  king  of  Cyprus 
paid  him  20  talents  (about  $22,000)  for  a  single  oration.  These  set 
speeches  were  not  merely  delivered  once,  but  were  copied  and  read 
wherever  Greek  was  understood.  On  the  other  hand,  he  would  some- 
times spend  from  five  to  ten  years  in  perfectmg  one  of  these  show  pieces. 


44  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

He  spoke  with  ease,  adapting  the  language  of  the  people 
to  his  own  usage;  his  periods  were  flowing  and  rhythmical; 
and  he  had  an  instinctive  knowledge  of  everything  which 
tends  to  the  possibilities  of  harmonious  language.  It  is 
said  that  Cicero  was  a  deep  student  of  Isocrates.^ 

It  was  not  until  near  the  close  of  the  Prae-Alexandrian 
Period  that  the  most  magnil^cent  representative  of  Greek 
oratory  arose  in  the  person  of  Demosthenes.  He  com- 
bined the  persuasiveness  of  Lysias,  the  animation  and 
boldness  of  Thucydides,  and  he  understood  well  the  art 
of  speaking  in  short,  terse  sentences  which  would  go 
home  like  arrows  to  the  minds  of  an  assembled  multitude. 
His  superb  oration  On  tJie  Crown  shows  not  only  an 
absolute  mastery  of  all  the  resources  of  rhetoric  employed 
with  great  intellectual  power,  but  also  patriotic  fervour 
and  that  sincerity  which  belongs  essentially  to  the  et/co? 
upon  which  Corax  had  insisted.^ 

So  much  of  the  teaching  in  Greece  was  given  orally 
that  we  may  perhaps  find  in  this  circumstance  an  explana- 
tion as  to  why  the  oldest  rhetorical  text-book  now  in 
existence  belongs  to  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century 
B.C.  Corax,  already  mentioned,  had  merely  discussed  the 
divisions  of  an  oration  and  the  manner  of  presenting  its 
arguments.  In  the  manual  written  by  Anaximenes  (who, 
by  the  way,  wrote  nine  books  of  criticism  on  Homer),  the 

'  See  Blass,  Ailische  Beredsamkeil,  2d  ed.,  3  vols.  (Leipzig,  1898);  and 
Jebb,  Attic  Orators,  ii.  pp.  1-34,  2d  ed.  (London,  1893). 

'  See  Butcher,  Demosthenes,  preface  to  last  ed.  (London,  1903). 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  45 

subject  is  treated  practically  rather  than  philosophically. 
Anaximenes  taught  rhetoric  to  Alexander  the  Great,  who 
for  his  sake  spared  the  city  of  Lampsacus,  though  it  had 
sided  with  the  Persians.  This  manual,  which  is  dedicated 
to  Alexander,  was,  until  the  last  century,  included  among 
the  works  of  Aristotle  and  generally  ascribed  to  him, 
though  with  considerable  doubt.  In  1828,  L.  Spengel  in 
his  treatise  on  the  rhetorical  writers  prior  to  Aristotle ' 
conclusively  proved  the  work  to  be  that  of  Anaximenes. 
The  author  divides  oratorical  discussion  into  three  cate- 
gories: (i)  Forensic,  (2)  Deliberative,  (3)  Declamatory. 
This  threefold  division  was  accepted  by  the  ancients  from 
that  time.  The  manual  gives  excellent  advice  as  to  the 
proper  arrangement  of  the  members  of  an  oration,  with 
some  further  technical  details.  The  book,  however,  is 
brief  and  its  treatment  of  the  subject  very  meagre. 

The  first  scientific  treatise  with  a  full  analysis  and  a 
comprehensive  grasp  of  both  theory  and  practice  is  that 
of  Aristotle  in  his  Rhetorica,  divided  into  three  parts  or 
books.  As  this  is  the  most  important  work  on  rhetoric 
produced  in  ancient  times,  a  short  account  of  its  plan  and 
development  may  be  given  here.  The  great  point  of 
departure  in  Aristotle's  discussion  of  rhetoric  is  found  in 
his  view  of  its  functions.  Rhetoric  to  him  is  not  the  art 
of  ornamenting  and  beautifying  discourse.  It  is  not 
merely  persuasion.  It  is  rather  the  discovery  of  the 
>  Published  at  Stuttgart,  1828. 


46  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

possible  means  of  persuasion.  Hence,  rhetoric  is  the 
counterpart  of  Logic,  and  the  principles  of  logic  enter  into 
its  laws  as  an  essential  part  of  them.  The  uses  of  rhetoric 
are:  (i)  the  means  by  which  truth  and  justice  may  rise 
superior  to  falsehood  and  injustice;  (2)  the  means  of 
persuasion  that  are  suited  to  popular  assemblies;  (3)  the 
means  of  seeing  both  sides  of  a  case  and  of  thus  dis- 
covering the  weakness  of  an  adversary's  argument;  and 
(4)  the  means  of  defending  one's  own  case  against  all 
possible  attacks  that  can  be  made  upon  it.  The  means 
of  persuasion  he  sets  forth  as  follows:  (i)  natural,  "  in- 
artificial "  proofs,  such  as  the  sworn  testimony  of  wit- 
nesses, documents,  etc.;  and  (2)  artificial  proofs,  which 
are  either  (a)  logical,  involving  demonstration  by  argu- 
ment; or  else  (b)  ethical,  when  the  weight  of  a  speaker's 
own  character  inspires  confidence  in  his  hearers,  and 
emotional,  when  he  works  upon  the  feelings  of  his  listeners 
by  appealing  to  their  sympathies  or  prejudices.  Logical 
proof,  he  says,  depends  upon  the  principle  of  giving  "  a 
syllogism  from  probability."  Of  the  nature  of  such 
syllogisms  he  distinguishes  the  common  topic  or  general 
head,  applicable  to  all  subjects,  and  the  special  topic  drawn 
from  special  arts,  gifts,  or  circumstances. 

Following  a  division  of  Anaximenes,  rhetoric  was 
divided  into  three  kinds:  (i)  Deliberative  Rhetoric,  which 
has  to  do  with  exhortation  or  persuasion  and  is  concerned 
with  future  time  as  to  expediency  or  inexpediency;   (2)  Fo- 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  47 

rensic  Rhetoric,  relating  to  accusation  or  defence  and 
concerned  with  time  past  as  to  justice  or  injustice;  and 
(3)  Epideictic  Rhetoric,  relating  to  eulogy  or  censure, 
and  usually  concerned  with  the  present  time  and  as  to 
honour  or  distress.  The  first  two  books  of  Aristotle's 
rhetoric  deal  with  invention,  i.e.  the  discovery  of  the 
means  of  persuasion.  The  third  book  relates  to  expres- 
sion and  arrangement.  Under  the  latter  head  he  treats 
of  the  art  of  delivery,  considering  verbal  expression  in 
which  is  included  the  use  of  metaphor,  simile,  and  terse 
gnomic  sayings,  of  the  rhythm  of  sentences,  and  of  Style. 
As  to  style  he  notes  four  varieties:  (i)  the  purely  literary, 
(2)  the  controversial,  (3)  the  political,  and  (4)  the  forensic. 

Aristotle's  Rhetoric  is  the  most  exhaustive,  analytical, 
and  scientific  treatise  on  the  subject  that  has  ever  been 
written.  It  is,  however,  as  has  been  truly  said,  the 
philosophy  of  rhetoric  rather  than  rhetoric  that  he  dis- 
cusses. His  mind  was  intensely  analytical  and  was 
always  seeking  for  ultimate  causes;  so  that  even  in  this 
field  he  is  forever  verging  upon  the  sphere  of  the  meta- 
physical. The  great  importance  of  the  treatise  is  that  it 
prepared  the  way  for  Aristotle's  Dialectic  or  Logic,  which 
in  turn  furnished  many  of  the  distinctions  and  classifica- 
tions, destined  afterward  to  be  used  in  a  different  relation 
by  the  originators  of  Formal  Grammar. 

Aristotle  himself  regarded  rhetoric  as  standing  side  by 
side  with  logic,  since  each  relates  to  the  process  of  insur- 


48  HISTORY   or    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

ing  conviction.  The  orator  must  be  a  dialectician  if  he 
would  reach  the  highest  excellence  in  his  art;  and  the 
dialectician,  on  the  other  hand,  will  make  his  logic  most 
effective  through  a  command  of  the  arts  of  oratory. 
Hence  Aristotle's  rhetoric  is  really  a  dialectic  science.  In 
his  Organon,  after  he  has  set  forth  his  system  of  logic, 
he  develops  the  methods  by  which  man  arrives  at  knowl- 
edge. He  discloses  the  laws  of  thinking  and  the  modes 
of  cognition  from  a  study  of  man's  faculty  of  cognition, 
striving  to  gain  an  insight  into  the  nature  and  formation 
of  evidence  and  conclusion.  In  the  course  of  this  inquiry 
he  tries  to  classify  all  possible  objects  of  human  knowl- 
edge under  definite  heads.  In  so  doing,  he  drew  up  his 
idsaowi,  ttn  CaXtgox'ms  {prcedicamenta).  These  are:  (i)  sub- 
stance, (2)  quantity,  (3)  quality,  (4)  relation,  (5)  place, 
(6)  time,  (7)  situation,  (8)  possession,  (9)  action,  (10)  suffer- 
ing, that  is  to  say,  passivity.^  The  mere  enumeration  of 
these  categories  serves  to  show  how  intimately  they  are 
connected  with  the  classification  that  we  find  in  our 
formal  grammar.  Because,  in  setting  them  forth,  Aris- 
totle provided  a  terminology  and  a  framework  for  the 
Alexandrian  and  other  grammarians  in  the  following 
period,  he  has  been  spoken  of  as  the  source  in  which 
both  criticism  and  grammar  find  their  origin.^ 

'  These  ten  categories  are  really  reducible  to  two:  (i)  substance,  (2)  at- 
tribute;  or  (i)  being,  (2)  accident. 

'  Dio  Cassius,  liii.  p.  353;  Reiske  (294  R).  Aristotle's  Rhetoric  is 
edited  separately  with  notes  by  Cope  and  Sandys,  3  vols.    (Cambridge, 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  49 

Rhetoric,  language  study,  criticism,  literary  training, 
and  philosophy  were  all  popularised  by  a  class  of  teachers 
who  became  famous  under  the  name  of  Sophists  {(To(^i<TTai). 
Originally  the  name  Sophist  was  given  to  any  one  who 
professed  a  particular  knowledge  of  some  special  subject; 
but  about  450  B.C.  it  was  primarily  applied  to  well- 
educated  men  who  had  the  gift  of  ready  speech  and  who 
travelled  from  place  to  place  lecturing  and  teaching  in 
return  for  a  tuition  fee.  They  were  the  middlemen 
of  learning  and  made  intelligible  to  untrained  minds  a 
good  deal  of  what  was  set  forth  more  profoundly  by  original 
writers  and  thinkers.  They  have  their  counterpart  in  the 
peripatetic  lecturers  who  traversed  the  United  States  from 
1830  to  i860,  making  addresses  before  "  lyceums,"  and  in 
the  university  extension  teachers  of  the  last  two  decades. 
Some  of  them  were  men  of  great  ability,  such  as  Gorgias 
of  Leontini,  already  mentioned;  and  Protagoras,  a  brilliant 
teacher  of  rhetoric  in  Athens,  who  was  the  first  scientific 
individualist,  taking  as  his  motto  ''  Man  is  the  measure  of 
all  things,"  that  is  to  say,  every  man  must  be  his  own 
standard  of  truth,  since  truth  is  only  relative  and  not 
absolute.  There  was  also  Prodicus  of  Ceos,  who  lectured 
on  literary  style  {opOoeTreia),  laying  great  stress  on  the  right 

1877);  and  Zeller,  Aristotle  (London,  1897).  On  the  rhetoric  of  the 
•Greeks,  see  Gros,  Etude  sur  la  Rhelorique  chez  les  Grecques  (Paris,  1835); 
Perrot,  Les  Preciirseurs  de  Dcmosthene  (Paris,  1S73);  Girard,  Etudes 
sur  V Eloquence  (Paris,  1847);  and  Bascom,  The  Philosophy  of  Rhetoric 
(New  York,  1888). 

E 


50  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

use  of  words  {le  mot  juste).  Hippias  of  Elis  was 
another  famous  Sophist.  He  was  a  man  of  prodigious 
memory  and  profoundly  versed  in  all  the  learning  of  the 
day,  so  that  he  attempted  literature  in  every  form  that  had 
so  far  been  developed.  He  piqued  and  rather  shocked 
his  audiences  by  attempting  to  prove  that  law  is  an  evil 
and  should  not  be  obeyed,  since  it  forces  man  to  do  many 
things  which  are  contrary  to  his  nature.  In  this  he  was 
one  of  the  first  representatives  of  what  the  higher  slang  of 
our  day  describes  as  "  the  artistic  temperament." 

Such  Sophists  as  these  —  brilliant,  versatile,  eloquent, 
and  ingenious  —  had  an  immense  influence  on    popular 
thought.     Their  society  was  courted  by  the  leading  men 
of  Athens.     Even  Pericles  took  pleasure  in  their  conver- 
sation.    Greatest  of  them  all   was   Socrates,  though  he 
professed  to  despise  the  Sophists  as  a  class  and  believed 
himself  to  be  other  than  a  Sophist  because  he  took  no 
money  for  his  teachings,  which  were  given  in  a  desultory, 
conversational    fashion.     From    Protagoras    and    Gorgias 
and  Hippias,   the   Skeptics  derived  their  doctrines;   but 
Socrates  stands  forth  as  the  most  inspiring  philosophical 
teacher  of  any  time.     From  his  immensely  suggestive  talk, 
Plato  drew  his  inspiration,  as  did  Aristotle  from  Plato. 
Socrates  gave  an  entirely  new  turn  to  philosophic  teaching. 
Before  his  time  philosophy  had  been  physical;  after  Socrates 
it  became  metaphysical  and  ethical.     Just  as  the  early 
lonians  had  sought  for  a  material  origin  of  the  universe, 


THE   PILE- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  5 1 

SO  Socrates  thrust  aside  all  speculations  of  the  kind  and 
asked  the  epoch-making  question,  "  How  shall  man  live?  " 
The  answer  to  this  question  was  sought  not  merely  by 
Plato  and  by  Aristotle,  but  afterwards  by  the  Epicureans 
and  the  Stoics,  the  Cynics  and  the  Eclectics. 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that,  on  the  whole, 
the  Sophists  as  a  class  were  rightly  held  in  disesteem. 
The  majority  of  them  were  mere  smatterers,  glib  and 
shallow,  perverting  the  truth,  and  willing  for  a  price  to 
make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason.  In  the  end, 
the  later  Sophists  were  nothing  but  smooth  talkers,  some- 
times delighting  in  mere  technicalities,  which  took  with 
them  the  place  of  reason,  so  that  they  fell  wholly  into  ill 
repute.*  But  it  was  the  Sophists  of  the  fifth  century  who 
gave  a  special  impulse  to  the  theoretical  study  of  language. 
Remembering  the  importance  of  rhetoric  and  the  quasi- 
philosophical  principles  of  men  such  as  Protagoras  and 
Hippias,  it  is  not  strange  that  there  should  have  arisen 
an  immense  amount  of  discussion  regarding  language, 
from  the  desire  to  discover  the  laws  of  thought  through  a 
discovery  of  the  laws  which  govern  the  expression  of  that 
thought  in  human  speech. 

The  fact  that  Language  Study  began  as  an  adjunct  to 
the  study  of  philosophy  is  immensely  important  as  ex- 
plaining two  interesting  facts,  —  the  fact  that  the  pur- 

*  On  the  Sophists,  see  Benn,  Greek  Philosophers,  ch.  ii.  (London,  1883); 
Schanz,  Die  Sophisten  (Gottingen,  1867);  and  Ueberweg,  Geschichte  der 
Philosophic,  i.  9th  ed.  (Leipzig,  1907). 


52  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

suit  was  conducted  in  a  way  so  unlike  that  of  the  scien- 
tific linguist;  and  the  other  fact  that  a  long  time  elapsed 
before  the  development  of  scientific  grammar.  The  phi- 
losophers were  at  first  concerned  only  with  the  meanings 
of  words,  and  very  little  with  their  forms,  their  external 
relations  to  each  other,  or  their  arrangement  and  govern- 
ment in  a  sentence.  They  strove  rather  to  dig  down 
into  the  very  heart  of  language,  to  find  out  what  lay 
behind  the  sounds,  and  to  penetrate  into  the  working  of 
the  minds  that  gave  them  currency.  Why  was  a  certain 
combination  of  letters  the  representation  of  one  idea,  while 
a  certain  combination  of  other  letters  stood  for  the  repre- 
sentation of  a  different  idea?  In  general,  what  was  the 
relation  of  sound  to  thought?  These  questions  and 
others  like  them  first  attracted  the  philosopher  to  the 
study  of  language,  while  they  are  the  very  last  and  most 
remote  problems  to  interest  the  modern  scientific  linguist. 
Hence,  if  the  ancients  had  begun  to  investigate  language 
for  its  own  sake,  they  would  have  created  Grammar;  but 
as  they  took  up  the  subject  merely  as  a  means  to  another 
end  and  from  the  standpoint  of  psychology,  they  invented 
Etymology. 

It  is,  of  course,  to  be  understood  also  that  even  the 
most  enlightened  of  the  Greeks  in  their  most  earnest 
researches  never  went  beyond  the  study  of  their  own 
language.  They  scarcely  even  recognised  the  speech  of 
other  peoples  as  entitled  to  be  called  language  at  all. 


THE    PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  53 

The  Hellenic  contempt  for  the  non-Hellenic  is  nowhere 
more  strikingly  displayed  than  here.  To  the  Greeks  all 
foreigners,  and  even  their  own  kindred  who  spoke  un- 
familiar dialects,  were  styled  "  dumb  "  {ajXcoa-a-oc).  The 
contemptuous  term  /3dp/3apo<;  is  merely  another  expression 
of  the  same  feeling.  It  was  only  the  Greeks  who  talked. 
Other  people  chattered  like  the  birds  of  the  air,  or  jab- 
bered like  the  beasts  of  the  forest.  Thus  the  Carians, 
the  Thracians,  the  Illyrians,  the  Phrygians,  and  even  the 
Macedonians  were  said  to  speak  "  barbarian  "  tongues.* 
Demosthenes  called  Alexander  the  Great  a  "barbarian." 
This  feeling  also  operated  in  keeping  back  the  development 
of  grammar  in  its  modern  sense.  As  a  rule,  no  Greek 
studied  foreign  languages.  His  own  tongue  he  learned  in 
childhood  and  he  felt  no  need  of  instruction  in  that.  As 
for  the  jargon  of  alien  races,  he  despised  both  them  and 
those  who  spoke  them.  Themistocles,  who  is  said  to  have 
spoken  Persian  very  fluently,  stands  out  as  a  conspicuous 
exception.  For  a  long  time  there  were  no  language  teach- 
ers and  no  study  of  language  from  the  standpoint  of  formal 
grammar.  Persons  who  in  ancient  times  acted  as  inter- 
preters between  Greeks  and  non-Greeks  were  either  children 
of  mixed  parentage,  speaking  both  their  fathers'  and  their 
mothers'  tongue;  or  else  they  were  foreigners  who  studied 
Greek  for  the  express  purpose  of  serving  as  interpreters. 
There  was,  indeed,  a  steady  demand  for  the  services  of 

'  Strabo,  vii.  321;   xiv.  662. 


54  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

such  men.  Herodotus  nowhere  implies  even  in  the  remot- 
est way  that  he  knew  any  of  the  languages  spoken  in  the 
many  countries  that  he  visited.  In  one  passage  ^  he 
speaks  of  caravans  of  merchants  in  the  region  of  the 
Volga  as  needing  seven  interpreters  {ep/jbr]vet<i)  speaking 
seven  languages.  At  a  very  much  later  period,  when 
Alexander  the  Great  penetrated  India  and  questioned  the 
Brahmins  on  the  subject  of  their  religion,  the  conversa- 
tion had  to  be  carried  on  through  a  series  of  interpreters. 
The  Greeks,  in  fact,  displayed  an  amusing  naivete  in  their 
astonishment  at  finding  so  many  people  who  knew  no 
Greek,  but  who  spoke  barbarian  tongues  with  so  much 
ease.  They  were,  in  fact,  apparently  not  gifted  as  prac- 
tical linguists;  for  even  after  Latin  was  the  language 
of  their  own  rulers,  they  seldom  learned  to  speak  it  well. 
Thus  Plutarch  says  ^  that  he  found  it  impossible  to  master 
Latin,  and  that  one  needs  to  begin  its  study  when  very 
young.  Strabo  notes  that  historical  treatises  composed 
in  foreign  languages  were  inaccessible  to  the  Greeks  and 
never  read  by  them.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  at  an  early  period  there  is  mention 
of  foreign  scholars  and  writers  who  acquired  an  excellent 
command  of  Greek,  men  like  Berosusthe  Babylonian  (in  the 
fourth  century  e.g.)  and  Manetho  the  Egyptian,  who  wrote 
in  Greek  the  records  of  their  respective  countries  —  annals 

'  Herodotus,  iv.  24. 
^  Plutarch,  Demosth.  2. 
3  Strabo,  ii.  4,  19. 


I 


THE   PR^- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  55 

which  the  Greeks  regarded  with  a  supercilious  indifference. 
There  is  absolutely  no  hint  in  any  ancient  writer  that  any 
of  these  foreign  languages  might  be  related  to  the  Hellenic 
dialects.  The  idea  would  have  seemed  preposterous 
even  to  the  most  enlightened  Greek.  The  nearest  ap- 
proach to  the  suggestion  of  such  an  idea  is  found  in 
Plato's  dialogue,  the  Cratylus,  where  Socrates  notes  the 
similarity  between  the  Greek  and  Phrygian  names  for 
certain  common  objects.  But  though  Plato  is  evidently 
here  upon  the  verge  of  a  discovery  that  was  made  only 
in  the  last  century,  he  failed  to  see  the  importance  of  the 
fact  which  he  had  set  down,  and  chose  rather  to  account 
for  it  on  the  theory  that  the  Greeks  had  borrowed  a  few 
words  from  the  Phrygians,  That  his  own  language  and 
that  of  a  "  barbarian "  people  had  a  common  source 
seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  him;  nor  did  so  keen 
an  observer  as  Aristotle  perceive  in  languages  "  the  law 
and  order  which  he  tried  to  discover  in  every  realm  of 
nature."  Hence,  it  came  about  that,  as  the  Greeks  were 
naturally  slow  in  acquiring  foreign  tongues,  as  they  had  a 
supreme  contempt  for  other  languages  than  their  own,  and 
as  they  entered  on  the  investigation  of  the  subject  from  a 
purely  philosophical  and  psychological  point  of  view,  the 
first  stage  of  language  study  reached  by  them  was  the 
theoretical  rather  than  the  empirical. 

The  Greek  word  Xo'709  means  at  once  the  spoken  word, 
and  the  reason  which  prompts  the  utterance  of  that  word. 


56  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

This  duality  of  meaning  both  symbolises  and  illustrates 
the  spirit  in  which  the  Greek  philosophers  approached  the 
study  of  language.  They  wished  to  determine  (i)  whether 
the  word  and  the  thought  had  a  necessary  relation;  and 
if  so,  (2)  what  that  relation  was.  Naturally  enough,  two 
opposing  views  were  soon  formulated  by  two  philosophical 
schools.  The  Heracliteans  ^  believed  that  because  all 
truth  is  derived  from  language,  language  rests  upon  an 
immutable  basis.  Words  are  either  perfect  expressions 
of  things  or  else  they  are  only  inarticulate  sounds.  That 
is  to  say,  a  name  must  be  either  a  true  name  or  it  is  no 
name  at  all.  Between  every  name,  therefore,  and  the 
thing  which  it  signifies,  there  is  a  natural  harmony  by 
virtue  of  which  each  word  in  itself  inevitably  expresses 
the  innermost  nature  of  the  thing  named.  The  Heracli- 
teans thus  held  that  language  arose  by  nature  {(f>vaei  or 
vofxcp).  The  Eleatics,^  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  words 
as  given  to  things  arbitrarily;  that  the  names  of  things, 
like  the  names  of  slaves,  might  be  altered  at  pleasure; 
and  that,  in  consequence,  no  light  is  to  be  thrown  on 
mental  processes  or  on  the  nature  of  thought,  by  study- 
ing the  forms  in  which  it  is  expressed.  One  of  the  Eleatics, 
a  Megarian,  Diodorus,  named  his  slaves  after  the  con- 
junctions, thinking  to  show  thereby  the  absurdity  of  the 
Heraclitean     doctrine,  —  which     recalls     Dr.      Johnson's 

*  I.e.  the  followers  of  Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  about  500  B.C. 
^  I.e.  the  followers  of  Xenophanes  and  Parmenides  of  Elea. 


THE    PR^- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  57 

famous  refutation  of  Berkeley's  idealism.  Language, 
therefore,  according  to  the  Eleatics,  arose  by  convention 
{diaei  or  avv6r]Kri). 

This  controversy  has  an  interest  far  greater  than  any 
merely  linguistic  discussion  could  possess.  It  really 
strikes  down  into  the  most  profound  recesses  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  It  grazes  the  borderland  of  a  philosophical 
question  that  has  puzzled  metaphysicians  ever  since  men 
began  to  reflect  upon  the  mystery  of  their  being,  —  a 
question  that  has  never  been  solved  and  that,  humanly 
speaking,  admits  of  no  solution.  It  is  the  question  which 
in  the  scholastic  period  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  known 
as  the  question  of  Realism  and  Nominalism.  It  is  the 
question  which,  in  after  times,  appeared  as  the  question 
of  the  Freedom  of  the  Human  Will.  Its  discussion  by 
the  ancient  philosophers  led  to  the  investigation  of  lan- 
guage. As  it  was  claimed  that  language  corresponds 
naturally  and  inevitably  to  the  thought,  just  as  sensation 
corresponds  to  the  object  which  excites  it,  the  first  in- 
quiry which  philosophers  set  before  themselves  was  this: 
What  is  language? 

Heraclitus  asserted  that  language  is  the  immediate 
product  of  a  natural  power  which  assigns  to  each  thing 
its  proper  designation  as  a  necessary  element  of  the  thing's 
existence.  Names,  he  said,  are  like  the  natural,  not  the 
artificial  images  of  visible  things,  i.e.  they  resemble  the 
shadows  cast  by  solid  objects,  the  images  seen  in  mirrors, 


58  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  reflected  sun  in  still  water.  "  Those  who  use  the 
true  word  do  really  and  truly  name  the  object,  while  those 
who  do  not,  merely  make  an  unmeaning  noise."  That 
is,  words  are  the  immediate  copies  of  things,  produced  by 
nature  herself,  not  due  to  any  subjective  influence  or 
human  caprice,  but  corresponding  to  realities  by  objec- 
tive necessity;  they  have  an  abstract  propriety  and  fit- 
ness (opdoTTj'i)  and  an  intrinsic  force  and  meaning.  This 
is  the  extreme  statement  of  the  Heraclitean  doctrine  which 
was  afterward  modified  by  Epicurus  so  as  to  make  the 
objective  necessity,  referred  to  above,  a  physical,  organic 
necessity. 

Against  the  Heracliteans,  the  Eleatics  defended  their 
thesis  that  names  are  given  and  were  always  given  arbi- 
trarily by  men  who  might  with  perfect  propriety  change 
them  about.  Democritus  propounded  four  arguments 
against  the  Heraclitean  view,  (i)  The  argument  of 
Homonymy.  For  instance,  /cXeiV  means  both  a  key  and 
a  collar-bone.  Now  a  key  and  a  collar-bone  have  abso- 
lutely no  relation  to  each  other;  hence,  if  /cXet?  be  the 
inevitable  and  natural  name  for  one  of  them,  it  certainly 
cannot  be  equally  the  inevitable  and  natural  name  of 
the  other.  (2)  The  argument  of  Polyonymy.  A  man  is 
called  avdp(iiTro<i,  or  fi€po\fr,  or  ^poro^;.  These  terms  are 
in  no  way  alike;  how  then  can  they  all  three  be  the  nec- 
essary names  of  the  one  object?  (3)  The  argument  of 
Change,  as   when   Aristocles  comes  to  be  called   Plato. 


THE    PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  59 

(4)  The  argument  of  Missing  Analogy,  as  when  we  have 
the  verb  (fjpovelv formed  from  (jiRovrjaf? ^while  from  hiKaLoavvrj 
we  find  no  such  verb  as  SiKaioawelv. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  Heracliteans  num- 
bered among  their  followers  the  majority  of  the  ancient 
philosophers,  though  Aristotle  stands  out  as  a  great  ex- 
ception. He,  with  his  dislike  of  anything  mystical,  and 
with  his  practical  hold  on  the  real,  was  an  uncompromis- 
ing opponent  of  the  natural  theory,  and  held  that  language 
depends  on  the  common  argument  and  conviction  of 
men,  —  words  having  no  meaning  at  all  in  themselves, 
but  having  all  their  meaning  put  into  them  by  those  who 
use  them.  They  are  mere  counters,  whose  value  depends 
wholly  upon  the  assent  of  mankind. 

It  was  evident,  of  course,  to  the  Heracliteans  them- 
selves, after  a  little  study,  that  their  claims  could  not  be 
made  good  in  language  as  it  actually  existed;  for  they 
could  not  show  in  the  case  of  many  words  any  essential 
connection  with  the  objects  described  by  them;  and  it 
was  also  evident  that  words  had  greatly  changed  since 
the  time  when  they  were  first  coined.  Hence,  the  dis- 
cussion was  put  back  from  words  as  they  were  then,  to 
words  as  they  had  once  been;  and  this  led  to  speculation 
as  to  the  origin  of  language.  Setting  aside  the  original 
notion  that  it  was  directly  created  by  the  Deity,  men 
sought  to  show  in  what  manner  it  first  came  into  existence. 
If  word  and  object  be  related,  what  is  the  nature  of  the 


6o  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

relation?  If  the  original  name  was  appropriate  to  the 
thing  named,  in  what  way  was  it  appropriate?  The 
general  drift  of  opinion  answered  this  question  in  favour 
of  the  "  onomatopoetic  "  theory,  not  in  its  crudest  form, 
but  in  the  form  in  which  it  has  been  defended  in  modern 
times  by  men  like  Heyse  and  his  pupil  Steinthal,  and 
cautiously  by  Whitney  and  by  Paul.'  A  passage  of 
Epicurus  cited  by  Diogenes  Laertius  (x.  75)  gives  the 
fairest  and  most  temperate  expression  of  what  this  view 
meant : 

"  Words  in  the  beginning  did  not  originate  by  express 
agreement;  but  by  the  very  nature  of  men,  in  the  case  of 
each  people,  experiencing  peculiar  feelings  and  hearing 
peculiar  ideas,  they  expelled  the  air  accordingly,  thus  ex- 
pressing different  feelings  and  ideas  differently,  just  as 
people  differed  in  location  and  surroundings." 

This  is  in  reality  the  theory  of  Heyse.  So  Lucretius^ 
argues  that  speech  arose  from  the  impulse  of  things,  just 
as  children  who  cannot  speak,  begin  to  gesture.  And 
what  wonder  is  it,  he  says,  that  men  mark  different  feel- 
ings by  different  sounds  of  the  voice?  Even  dogs  and 
horses  and  gulls  and  crows  in  the  same  way  express  vary- 
ing moods  and  passions. 

'  Hej'se,  System  der  Sprachwissenschaft,  edited  by  Steinthal  (Berlin, 
1856);  Steinthal,  Gesckichte  der  Sprachwissenschaft  bei  den  Greichen  und 
RSntern,  2  vols.  2d  ed.  (Berlin,  1891);  and  Whitney,  The  Life  and  Growth 
of  Language  (New  York,  1880);  id.  Language  a)td  the  Study  of  Lan- 
guage, 4th  ed.  (New  York,  1884). 

'  Lucretius,  v.  1028  foU. 


THE   PILE- ALEXANDRIAN  PERIOD  6 1 

The  whole  of  the  ancient  teaching  on  language,  its 
nature  and  its  origin,  is  summed  up  and  digested  in 
that  wonderful  dialogue  of  Plato's  which  bears  the  name 
of  Cratylus.  This  work  is  by  far  the  most  profoundly 
philosophical  linguistic  discussion  that  antiquity  pro- 
duced, —  full  of  deep  truths  and  searching  insight.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  treatise  on  language  before 
the  last  century  is  worthy  of  comparison  with  it.  Yet  its 
importance  has  been  only  half  appreciated  by  many,  ow- 
ing to  the  vein  of  humour  that  runs  through  it,  and  the 
playful  tone  that  characterises  its  most  remarkable  pas- 
sages. Some  scholars  have  even  regarded  it  as  purely  a 
piece  of  philosophical  fun,  a  Platonic  extravaganza  meant 
only  to  make  a  mock  of  the  whole  subject  of  language 
study.  This  view  is  wholly  untenable,  and  whoever  holds 
it  misses  one  of  the  most  striking  proofs  of  the  greatness 
of  Plato.  It  is  precisely  in  the  mode  of  treatment  that 
he  has  chosen  to  adopt,  and  because  he  has  half  hidden 
his  deepest  truths  beneath  a  veil  of  humour,  that  the 
argument  of  the  Cratylus  is  so  remarkable.  Plato  had  re- 
flected long  and  seriously  upon  the  nature  and  phenom- 
ena of  human  speech ;  he  had  satisfied  himself  of  many 
things  of  which  his  contemporaries  had  no  conception;  yet 
when  he  came  to  gather  together  the  results  of  his  reflec- 
tions and  to  mass  his  facts,  it  was  evident  to  him  that 
he  was  still  far  from  having  attained  a  complete  philoso- 
phy of  language.     There  were  still  too  many  things  left 


62  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

unexplained,  too  many  lacunae  in  his  fabric.  Hence,  he 
prefers  to  refrain  from  dogmatic  statement.  He  will  not 
claim  to  have  a  well-rounded  and  complete  system;  and, 
therefore,  he  elects  to  treat  the  subject  with  a  light  touch, 
to  speak  modestly  and  with  caution,  and  to  let  his  own 
observations  fall  casually  into  the  mind  of  his  reader  as 
suggestions  and  incentiv^es  toward  further  speculation. 
His  really  serious  spirit  is,  therefore,  subordinated  to  a 
humorous  treatment,  so  that  in  the  Cratylus  we  have, 
as  it  were,  a  giant  at  play.  It  gives  us,  in  a  way,  the 
chips  and  shavings  of  his  mental  workshop,  yet  the  chips 
and  shavings  are  those  of  one  whose  dust-heap  contains 
more  pure  gold  than  the  treasuries  of  other  men. 

The  Cratylus  is  a  dialogue  between  Socrates,  Hermog- 
enes,  and  Cratylus.  Hermogenes  is  a  disciple  of  the 
later  Eleatics,  and  Cratylus  a  sincere  believer  in  the  phi- 
losophy of  Heraclitus.  They  have  been  arguing  about 
names,  and  as  each  represents  a  point  of  view  diametrically 
opposed  to  that  of  the  other,  they  call  upon  Socrates  to 
share  in  the  discussion.  He,  as  usual,  professes  ignorance 
of  the  subject,  and  then  by  questions  draws  out  from  each 
of  his  friends  their  respective  theories.  Having  listened 
to  them,  Socrates  criticises  each,  and  in  his  turn  enters 
upon  some  speculations  of  his  own  in  a  half-playful  yet 
most  suggestive  discourse.  Just  as  between  Realism  and 
Nominalism,  Conceptualism  stands  as  a  compromise,  and 
just  as  between  the  doctrine  of  Predestination  and  that 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN  PERIOD  63 

of  the  Freedom  of  the  Will  stands  out  Determinism,  so  the 
views  advanced  by  Socrates  represent  a  mean  between  the 
"  natural  "  theory  of  Heraclitus  and  the  "  conventional  " 
theory  of  the  Eleatics. 

Language,  he  says,  is  natural,  and  it  is  also  conventional, 
for  it  has  in  it  elements  that  are  natural  and  those  that  are 
conventional.  It  is  originally  a  work  of  art,  for  names  are, 
first  of  all,  imitations  of  sounds,  vocal  imitations.  Yet  vocal 
imitations,  like  any  other  copying,  may  be  most  imperfectly 
executed,  and  this  imperfection  may  involve  the  element  of 
chance.  For  there  is  much  that  is  accidental  or  exceptional 
in  language.  Some  words  have  had  their  early  meaning  so 
obscured  that  they  have  to  be  helped  out  by  convention. 
Yet,  still,  the  true  name  is  that  which  has  a  natural  meaning. 
Thus,  nature,  art,  and  chance,  all  enter  into  the  formation 
of  language,  and  they  are  so  closely  intertwined  as  to  make 
it  often  impossible  to  separate  them.  So  far  as  we  may 
hope,  however,  to  discover  the  natural  element  and  judge 
of  it  as  derived  from  art  and  accident,  we  can  do  so  only 
by  applying  to  words  a  strict  analysis.  In  the  first  place, 
many  words,  perhaps  most  words,  are  in  their  present 
form,  not  primary  words,  nor  even  simple  words,  but  com- 
pound. These  we  must  first  resolve  until  we  reach  the 
simple  forms.  But  the  simple  forms  themselves  are  not  the 
primary  ones,  for  these  have  been  altered  by  time.  Hence, 
we  must  in  the  end  resolve  words  into  the  letters  which 
compose  them,  because  these,  or  rather  the  sounds  which 


64  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

they  denote,  must  have  a  meaning.  This  was  well  known 
to  the  first  makers  of  language.  They  observed  that  the 
sound  of  a  denoted  vastness  and  length;  that  p  expressed 
motion  as  in  pew,  porj,  Tpop.o'^,  pu/x^eoi  ("  whirl,")  because 
in  uttering  that  sound  the  tongue  was  most  agitated  and 
least  at  rest;  that  -v/^,  </>,  cr,  and  ^required  a  great  expend- 
iture of  breath  and  were  therefore  used  in  imitative  words 
such  as  ^eco  ("  seethe  ")j  o-eta/xo'i,  and  in  general  when  the 
thought  of  air  is  involved;  that  the  limpid  movement  of 
X,  in  whose  pronunciation  the  tongue  slips  along,  enables 
that  letter  to  express  smoothness  as  in  \et09,  \nrap6v, 
fcoX\.(oBe<;  ("gluey");  that  the  sound  of  7  detained  the 
slipping  tongue  so  that  when  united  with  X.,  there  is  given 
an  impression  of  what  is  glutinous  and  clammy,  as  in  \t 
(Txpo'i-,  7Xy«u?,  yXoicoSj]^;  that  v,  being  "sounded  within," 
gives  the  notion  of  inwardness;  while  o  suggests  roundness. 
Thus  the  first  language  makers  impressed  thought  on  names 
by  a  principle  of  imitation.  Gesture  is  the  method  which 
a  deaf  and  dumb  person  would  use  to  make  his  meaning 
clear,  and  language  is  only  vocal  gesture,  the  gesture  of 
the  tongue.  Yet  though  thought  was  stamped  on  words  in 
their  genesis,  the  lesson  that  we  may  learn  from  words 
is  not  philosophical  or  moral;  for  the  use  of  words  varies 
indefinitely.  It  may  be  metaphysical,  accidental,  conven- 
tional, or  in  some  other  way  secondary,  and  so  may  have 
no  real  relation  to  the  thought  or  feeling  of  the  speaker  at 
the  time. 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  65 

Such  is  an  outline  of  the  Platonic  views  on  language  as 
set  forth  in  the  Cratylus.  They  embody  all  that  was  best 
and  most  rational  in  ancient  linguistic  speculation,  and 
contain  principles  that  philologists  have  not  yet  rejected. 
Plato,  in  fact,  is  the  first  to  draw  attention  to  the  distinc- 
tion between  simple  and  compound  words.  In  his  men- 
tion of  the  Lautgeberden,  he  makes  an  immense  advance 
in  the  physiology  of  language;  and  in  speaking  of  the 
similarity  of  certain  foreign  words  to  the  corresponding 
terms  in  Greek,  he  approaches  the  very  verge  of  a  great 
discovery.  His  classification  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet 
is  very  much  that  which  the  most  modern  phoneticians 
agree  to  follow.  He  it  is  who  separated  them  into  voiceful 
letters,  or  vowels  ((jxovqevTa) ,  and  voiceless  letters,  or  conso- 
nants {a^wva).  The  letters  he  subdivides  into  semi- 
vowels {rjui(j)(jova,  X,  /J.,  v,  p,  a)  and  true  mutes  (a(f)6ojya). 

The  really  humorous  part  of  the  Cratylus  is  that  in  which 
Socrates  burlesques  the  extraordinary  etymologies  of  the 
Sophists,  pouring  forth  a  flood  of  conjectures  on  the  com- 
position of  the  words  which  his  listeners  suggest  to  him, 
and  playing  havoc  with  all  phonetic  order  and  system. 
"  You  know,"  he  says,  "  that  the  original  form  of  the 
word  is  always  being  overlaid  and  bedizened  by  people 
sticking  on  and  stripping  off  letters  for  the  sake  of  euphony, 
and  twisting  and  turning  them  in  all  sorts  of  ways;  and 
this  may  be  done  for  ornament  or  it  may  be  the  result  of 
time."     And  so  in  restoring  the  original  form,  he  gives 


66  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

himself  a  free  hand  and  alters  and  syncopates  and  apoco- 
pates and  extends  and  stretches  until  Hermogenes  in  a 
sort  of  half-skeptical  admiration  cries  out,  "  Well,  Socrates, 
you  have  knocked  them  to  pieces  manfully."  AlOrjp 
is  aeiOerjp  because  it  is  "  always  running  "  about  the  earth; 
rexvrj  he  derives  from  ixovdrj  ("  possession  of  mind ") 
and  says  "  you  have  only  to  take  away  the  t,  insert  o  be- 
tween the  X  ^^cl  the  v,  and  another  o  between  the  v  and 
the  v,"  upon  which  Hermogenes  very  naturally  says,  "  That 
is  a  pretty  tough  etymology." 

Every  one  should  read  the  Cratylus  because  in  its  serious 
parts  it  abounds  in  singularly  acute  speculations;  and  in 
its  lighter  passages  it  affords  us  an  excellent  notion  of  the 
absurdities  of  the  word-mongers  of  the  fifth  century.^ 
Many,  in  fact,  were  the  vagaries  of  the  Sophists  in  their 
guesses  at  etymology  and  at  the  principles  of  language- 
making;  and  it  was  not  only  among  the  philosophers  and 
quasi-philosophers  that  this  sort  of  thing  prevailed,  but  it 
is  seen  equally  in  the  writers  of  pure  literature,  who  in  this 
followed  the  prevailing  fashion.  As  a  matter  of  general 
interest,  one  should  note  that  this  etymologising  craze 
was  something  more  than  a  mere  fad.  It  was  simply  one 
manifestation  of  a  very  Greek  trait,  —  a  quickness  of 
imagination  which  from  the  earliest  times  reveals  itself 
linguistically  in  an  almost  childish  fondness  for  playing 
upon  words,  for  paronomasia,  for  punning.     This  is,  in 

'  See  Jowett's  translation  of  the  Cratylus  in  his  Plato,  and  especially 
the  Introduction  to  the  Dialogue  in  question  (2d  ed.,  Oxford,  1893). 


THE   PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  67 

reality,  an  oriental  trait,  as  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  attest, 
and  was  never  regarded  as  undignified  or  trifling.  Hence, 
just  as  in  the  book  of  Genesis  alone  we  find  some  fifty  of 
these  pseudo-etymologies,  chiefly  in  plays  upon  proper 
names,  so  we  find  the  Greek  poets,  from  Homer  down,  seek- 
ing analogies  and  hidden  meanings  in  words  and  names. 
Observe  Homer's  explanation  of  Odysseus  from  oSva-aofjiat 
{Od.  xix.  406) ;  of  Ate,  1]  irdvra^  adrai  {II.  xix.  91) ;  of 
eXe^v?  and  iXe^aipofiai  (Od.  xix.  562  foil.).  The  great 
pun  of  ^schylus  on  the  name  of  Helen,  'EXevrj  eXeva<i 
€XavSpa<i  eXeTTToXt?,  {Ag.  689)  has  become  classic  in  Eng- 
lish through  Peele's  imitation  (in  Edward  I.) 

"  Sweet  Helen, 
Hell  in  her  name,  but  heaven  in  her  looks;" 

and  in  the  most  tragic  scene  of  the  same  play  (1040,  1049) 
two  puns  are  found  together.^  It  is  probable  that  this 
playing  upon  proper  names  and  also  its  dignity  depended 
upon  the  general  belief  in  the  so-called  Onomantia,  or  de- 
duction of  omens  from  names,  which  both  Greeks  and 
Romans  believed  in  so  devoutly  that  Leotychides  pledged 
the  Samian  people  to  a  great  expedition  merely  because 
a  perfect  stranger  who  urged  it  happened  to  be  called 
Hegesistratus.^ 

'  Euripides  was  called  rpayLKbs  irvixoXSyos.  Cf.  ^sch.  Prom.  86, 
875,  742,  718;  Ajax,  574  and  in  German,  Lersch,  Sprachphilosophie, 
iii.  11-17  (Bonn,  1841)  ;  Sturz,  De  Nominibus  Graecis,  in  his  Opusc. 
p.  78  (Leipzig,  1825).  Myths  seem  to  have  been  built  upon  the  basis 
of  false  etymologies,  as  Xa6s  and  Xaas. 

^  Herod,  ix.  91. 


68  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Much  as  the  Greeks  of  this  period  etymologised,  how- 
ever, there  is  Httle  evidence  that  they  went  so  far  as  to 
deal  with  the  general  subject  by  itself  and  for  its  own  sake. 
Such  treatises  as  those  of  Gorgias  On  Names,  of  Protag- 
oras On  Elocution,  of  Prodicus  On  the  Propriety  of  Names, 
and  of  Licymnius  On  Phrases  are  more  properly  referred 
to  the  rhetorical  and  oratorical  teachings  of  these  men 
regarding  which  something  has  already  been  said.  Licym- 
nius,^ however,  did  note  and  partly  discuss  and  classify 
synonyms,  root-words,  compounds,  and  cognates.  This 
may  be  taken  roughly  as  standing  on  the  border-land  of 
the  first  two  periods  in  the  history  of  Classical  Philology, 
and  as  having  shown  some  appreciation  of  formal  gram- 
mar. 

So  far  as  the  Prae-Alexandrians  came  to  any  etymolog- 
ical agreement,  it  was  in  generally  admitting  that  three 
principles  are  involved  in  the  development  of  words:  (i) 
the  principle  of  Imitation  (MZ/iT^o-t?),  already  discussed;  (2) 
the  principle  of  Metaphor  (Merac^opa),  by  which  words 
lose  their  primitive  meaning  and  are  gradually  extended 
in  their  application,  as  when  the  word  "  head  "  or  "  foot  " 
is  applied  to  a  mountain,  or  when  we  speak  of  a  man's 
thought  as  ''bitter,"  of  his  voice  as  "  sweet  ";  (3)  the  prin- 
ciple of  Antiphrasis  (AvTicfypaaa)  of  which  the  ancients 
made  much,  and  which  they  also  called  the  making  of 

*  A  Sicilian  teacher  of  Polus  who  also  wrote  a  treatise  on  rhetoric. 
See  Schneidewin  in  the  CoUinger  Gel.  Anzeiger  for  1845. 


THE    PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  69 

words  KaTCL  Ivavriaicnv^  or  the  naming  of  things  by  their 
opposites.  The  philosophical  principle  on  which  this  last 
is  based  is  a  sound  one  —  i.e.  that  of  two  antithetical 
ideas,  one  is  apt  to  suggest  the  other,  as  light  suggests 
darkness,  truth  suggests  falsehood,  and  so  on;  but  the 
etymological  application  of  it  was  grotesque.  It  appears 
to  have  occurred  to  them  because  of  certain  well-known 
euphemisms,  as  when,  for  example,  they  found  the  Furies 
styled  Eumenides,  "  the  well-disposed."  They  also  ob- 
served in  Irony  (Elpcoveia)  a  similar  principle;  and  there- 
fore, putting  the  two  together,  they  inferred  that  there  is 
something  in  the  human  mind  which  instinctively  describes 
objects  by  recalling  their  opposites.  Hence,  they  ex- 
plained many  words  on  this  hypothesis,'  just  as  the  later 
Latin  etymologists  derived  aridus  from  apSevetv,  helium 
from  hellus,  ccdum  from  celare,  and,  above  all,  the  famous 
Ulcus  a  non  lucendo,  which  last  is,  however,  a  perfectly 
correct  etymology,  though  the  ancients  misunderstood  the 
manner  of  its  derivation. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  preceding  pages  that  language 
study  among  the  Greeks  at  this  time  consisted  mainly  in 
ingenious  guesswork  and  in  large  and  loose  speculations. 
As  yet  there  was  no  such  thing  as  Grammar  in  the  later 
sense.  The  word  ypd/jL/jLara  meant  "  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet";  jpa/x/xaTia-T-q^  was  an  elementary  teacher  of 
reading  and  writing,  beginning  with  the  alphabet.  A 
^  See  Lobeck,  De  Antiphrasi  et  Etiphemismo.     (s.  n.  1.  n.) 


yo  HISTORY    OP    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

tile  found  in  Attica^  has  syllables  scratched  upon  it  (ap, 
/3a/9,  7a/3,  Sep  and  the  like,  which  show  that  spelling  was 
taught  and,  later,  reading.  But  the  word  grammaticus 
(jpafM/jLaTiKo^),  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking,  did 
not  mean  a  grammarian,  but  simply  a  person  of  ordinary 
education,  —  that  is,  one  who  was  able  to  read  and  write. 
Nevertheless,  as  already  suggested,  a  nucleus  had  been 
formed  around  which  grammatical  teaching  in  our  sense 
of  the  word  was  soon  to  be  developed.  Etymology  was  a 
favourite  subject  of  discussion.  Protagoras  of  Abdera 
(c.  411  B.C.)  was  the  first  to  distinguish  grammatical  moods 
and  also  genders.^  Prodicus  of  Ceos  had  written  a  trea- 
tise on  synonyms;  while  Plato  is  regarded  as  having  recog- 
nised two  distinct  parts  of  speech,  the  noun  {ovofia)  and 
the  verb  {priixa) ;  but  the  distinction  which  it  draws  be- 
tween them  is  not  strictly  a  grammatical,  but  a  logical,  dis- 
tinction, corresponding  to  the  difference  between  subject 
and  predicate.  The  true  distinction  is  made  by  Aristotle, 
who  also  goes  much  further  and  mentions  conjunctions 
{a-vvhea-ixoi),  a  term  loosely  used  by  him,  since  it  includes 
every  kind  of  connecting  particle.     The  term   apdpa  he 

1  Roberts,  Greek  Epigraphy,  p.  170  (Cambridge,  1887-1905). 

-  Protagoras  classified  modes  of  expression  as  question,  answer,  prayer, 
and  command.  In  the  matter  of  gender,  he  divided  nouns  as  either 
masculine,  feminine,  and  neuter,  this  classification  being,  like  our  own, 
natural  and  not  artificial.  All  male  creatures  were  regarded  as  masculine, 
all  female  creatures  as  feminine,  and  all  inanimate  things  as  neuter. 
He  uses  the  term  t^ws  which  was  afterward  adopted  by  the  grammari- 
ans in  the  sense  of  "gender"  (Lat.  genus). 


THE    PR^- ALEXANDRIAN    PERIOD  7 1 

used  in  an  indefinite  way  of  both  pronouns  and  articles. 
He  distinguished  between  tenses,  and  classifies  verbs  as 
not  only  "active"  and  "passive,"  but  those  which  are 
known  to  us  as  "neuter"  and  "deponent."  He  has 
something  to  say  of  punctuation,  though  he  mentions  only 
one  punctuation  mark  —  a  short  mark  placed  beneath  the 
first  word  of  the  line  which  ends  a  sentence.  This  he 
called  Trapaypacp^,  and  it  is  the  origin  of  our  word  "para- 
graph," applied  to  a  long  sentence  or  to  a  number  of 
connected  sentences.  It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  Aris- 
totle gives  names  to  subject  and  predicate.  All  these  dis- 
tinctions form  no  part  of  grammatical  doctrine,  since  this 
did  not  as  yet  exist;  but  they  were  at  the  time  logical  or 
metaphysical  in  their  essence.  Later,  the  Stoics  and  the 
Alexandrian  scholars  narrowed  the  definition  of  grammar 
(97  Te;!^^?;  rypafifxarcKi]),  and  our  modern  meaning  of  the 
word  became  familiar  even  while  its  wider  significance  still 
■  survived. 

Literary  Study  was  now  undertaken  from  the  stand- 
point of  aesthetics,  and  Literary  Criticism  became  more 
scientific.  The  period  which  immediately  followed  the 
Persian  Wars  was  the  richest  and  most  fruitful  in  the 
intellectual  history  of  Greece.  The  poems  of  Homer  had 
been  regarded  as  containing  in  their  lines  something  super- 
natural and  almost  divine;  and  this  feeling  is  set  forth  in 
the  Ion  of  Plato.  ,  But  popular  belief  also  held  that  Homer's 
inspiration  was  passed  on  from  him  to  the  great  poets  who 


72  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

were  his  successors,  just  as  certain  branches  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  assert  the  doctrine  of  an  ApostoHc  Succession. 
Thus  the  lyric  poets  shared  in  this  general  reverence,  and 
the  great  dramatic  poets  were  ennobled  by  popular  tradi- 
tion. We  have  seen  that  some  rude  form  of  tragedy  was 
said  to  have  originated  with  Thespis,  who  was  encouraged 
by  Pisistratus  to  present  his  plays  at  Athens.  The  great 
tragedians,  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides,  produced 
their  masterpieces  almost  contemporaneously.  Comedy 
(invented  by  Susarion)  began  to  thrive  and  found  its  most 
brilliant  exponent  in  Aristophanes  (444-388  B.C.).  A 
newer  form  of  comedy,  less  harsh  in  its  criticism  and  less 
personal  in  its  allusions,  was  presently  developed  first  by 
Aristophanes  himself  (Middle  Comedy)  and  was  per- 
fected by  Menander  (b.  342  B.C.)  in  the  New  Comedy. 
All  these  plays,  both  tragedies  and  comedies,  were  pro- 
duced at  the  great  festivals  of  the  Athenians,  and  prizes 
were  given  according  to  the  decision  of  the  people.^  The 
study  of  rhetoric  and  oratory,  the  popularity  of  the  Drama, 
and  the  exceedingly  great  intelligence  of  the  Greek  mind 
led  at  once  to  a  careful  study  of  the  most  famous  works 
in  prose  as  well  as  poetry.  Such  study  inevitably  took 
the  form  of  exegesis,  as  when  Plato  discusses  a  poem  of 
Simonides  in  the  Protagoras,  taking  up  the  questions  as  to 
the  meaning  of  certain  words  in  the  poem;  then  as  to  the 

'  So  at  first.    Afterwards,  the  prizes  were  awarded  by  a  committee  of 
five  judges  chosen  by  lot. 


THE   PR.« -ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  73 

consistency  of  Simonides;  and  finally,  a  long  disquisition 
on  the  poem  as  a  whole.  Thus  says  Socrates :  "  A  great 
deal  might  be  said  in  praise  of  the  details  of  the  poem, 
which  is  a  charming  piece  of  workmanship,  and  very 
finished,  but  that  would  be  tedious.  I  should  like,  how- 
ever, to  point  out  the  general  intention  of  the  poem." 
And  then  he  proceeds  to  do  so  at  considerable  length. 
This  is  essentially  exegetical  treatment  and  belongs  to  the 
science  of  Hermeneutics,  or  exposition.  In  the  Republic 
we  have  ^Esthetic  Criticism.  But  it  was  Aristotle  in  his 
Poetica  who  produced  a  work  of  true  aesthetic  criticism, 
which,  though  brief  and  unfinished,  is  so  full  of  suggestion 
and  profound  thought  as  to  make  it  to-day  perhaps  the  most 
widely  studied  of  all  his  numerous  writings.^  Professor 
Butcher  calls  attention  to  one  feature  of  the  treatise  which 
emphasises  an  important  fact  in  the  study  of  Greek  art. 
He  says :  — 

"  The  distinction  between  fine  and  useful  art  was  first 
brought  out  fully  by  Aristotle.  In  the  history  of  Greek 
art  we  are  struck  rather  by  the  union  between  the  two 
forms  of  art  than  by  their  independence.  It  was  a  loss 
for  art  when  the  spheres  of  use  and  beauty  came  in  practice 
to  be  dissevered,  when  the  useful  object  ceased  to  be  deco- 
rative, and  the  things  of  common  life  no  longer  gave  de- 
light to  the  maker  and  to  the  user.     But  the  theoretic 

*  See  Butcher,  Aristotle's  Theory  of  Poetry  and  Fine  Art  (London,  1902). 
This  volume  contains  a  critical  text  and  a  translation  of  the  Poetics,  with 
a  most  admirable  discussion  of  its  teachings  and  their  meaning. 


74  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

distinction  between  fine  and  useful  art  needed  to  be  laid 
down,  and  to  Aristotle  we  owe  the  first  clear  conception  of 
fine  art  as  a  free  and  independent  activity  of  the  mind, 
outside  the  domain  both  of  religion  and  of  politics,  having 
an  end  distinct  from  that  of  education  or  moral  improve- 
ment." 

A  famous  passage  in  the  Poetics  is  that  which  refers  to  the 
doctrine  of  "purgation"  {Kadapcrfi).  Plato  had  said  of 
tragedy  that  it  satisfies  "the  natural  hunger  for  sorrow 
and  vv^eeping,"  ^  and  that-  "  poetry  feeds  and  waters  the 
passions  instead  of  starving  them."  Thus  he  would  ban- 
ish the  poets  from  his  ideal  State.  Aristotle,  on  the  other 
hand,  "held  that  it  is  not  desirable  to  kill  or  to  starve  the 
emotional  part  of  the  soul;  and  that  the  regulated  indul- 
gence of  the  feelings  serves  to  maintain  the  balance  of  our 
nature."  Professor  Butcher,  summarising  an  explanation 
put  forth  in  1857  by  J.  Bernays,  says  that  katharsis  is  a 
medical  metaphor  and  "denotes  a  pathological  effect  on 
the  soul,  analogous  to  the  effect  of  medicine  on  the  body." 
The  thought,  as  he  interprets  it,  may  be  expressed  thus: 
Tragedy  excites  the  emotions  of  pity  and  fear  —  kindred 
emotions  that  are  in  the  breasts  of  all  men  —  and  by  the 
act  of  excitation  affords  a  pleasurable  relief.  The  feelings 
called  forth  by  the  tragic  spectacle  are  not,  indeed,  per- 
manently removed,  but  are  quieted  for  the  time.  .  .  .  The 
stage,  in  fact,  provides  a  harmless  and  pleasurable  outlet 

'  Republic,  x.  606. 


THE   PR^- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  75 

for  instincts  which  demand  satisfaction,  and  which  can 
be  indulged  here  more  fearlessly  than  in  real  life/ 

It  is  popularly  supposed  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Three 
Dramatic  Unities  is  set  forth  in  the  Poetica  of  Aristotle. 
This  is  not  strictly  true,  however,  since  Aristotle  definitely 
demands  only  the  unity  of  action,  —  namely,  that  "within 
the  single  and  complete  action  which  constitutes  the  unity 
of  a  play,"  the  successive  incidents  should  be  connected 
together  by  the  law  of  necessary  and  probable  sequence. 
One  may  read  into  the  treatise  a  suggestion  of  the  unity  of 
time  and  the  unity  of  place;  yet  these  were  not  actually 
formulated  until  the  sixteenth  century  by  Castelvetro,  an 
Italian  editor  of  Aristotle.^ 

The  Greeks  of  Aristotle's  time  regarded  tragedy  as  the 

highest   form  of  literature.      Certainly  to  them   it  was 

more  moving  and  more  profound  in  its  interpretation  of 

life  than  even  the  epic.     We  must  remember,  however, 

that  the  drama  is  more  than  literature,  since  it  is  literature 

blended  with  all  the  other  arts.     The  dance,  the  song,  the 

painter's    colouring,    and    instrumental    music,  too,    are 

there,  and  the  effect  of  animated  sculpture  is  found  in  the 

living  men  and  women  who  impersonate  the  characters. 

Hence  the  acted  drama  is  not  literature  pure  and  simple, 

but  it  is  a  melange  of  all  the  arts.' 

*  Butcher,  op.  cit.  pp.  227-228. 

^  See  Spingarn,  Literary  Criticism  in  the  Renaissance,  pp.  90-101 
(New  York,  igo8). 

■5  Peck,  Literature,  pp.  22,  2<S  (Xew  York,  1908). 


76  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

One  dwells  upon  Aristotle's  Poetica,  because  it  is  the 
most  remarkable  specimen  of  aesthetic  criticism  which  we 
now  possess.  But  criticism  of  various  kinds  was  to  be 
found  in  other  writers,  and  especially  in  Heraclides  Ponti- 
cus  (fl.  340  B.C.),  who  came  to  Athens,  where  he  studied 
under  Plato.  He  is  said  to  have  written  upon  many  sub- 
jects —  philosophy,  mathematics,  music,  history,  politics, 
language,  and  poetry.  Only  fragments  of  these  treatises 
remain,  though  we  have  a  synopsis  of  one  of  his  books 
on  the  subject  of  political  science.  There  was  also  Theo- 
phrastus  of  Lesbos  (b.  372  B.C.)  who  has  left  fragments  of 
two  works,  one  On  Comedy  and  the  other  On  Style.  In 
the  second  he  is  said  to  have  treated  of  metres  and  of 
solecisms.^ 

Much  criticism  must  have  been  given  orally  by  the 
Sophists  in  their  lectures;  and  in  the  dramas  themselves 
by  the  playwrights  in  their  hits  at  one  another.  This  was 
especially  the  case  with  comic  poets,  above  all,  Aris- 
tophanes, who  was  fond  of  gibing  at  Euripides  and  of 
praising  ^schylus.  It  is  said  that  a  whole  passage  of  the 
Telephus,  by  Euripides,  was  subsequently  omitted  because 
Aristophanes  had  made  such  game  of  it.^  Another  form  of 
criticism  is  to  be  found  in  the  parodies  of  serious  works. 

'See  Voss,  De  Heradidis  Pontici  Vita  et  Scriplis  (Rostock,  1897); 
and  the  dissertation  by  Rabe  on  Theophrastus  (Bonn,  1890). 

*  See  Egger,  Histoire  de  la  Critique,  pp.  45-70.  Later  Antiochus  of 
Alexandria  wrote  a  book  on  the  poets  who  were  criticised  in  the  Middle 
Comedy.     See  Athenaeus,  xi.  p.  232. 


THE   PRiE- ALEXANDRIAN  PERIOD  77 

Even  the  heroic  poetry  of  Homer  and  of  the  Cyclic  writers 
became  a  subject  of  burlesque.  There  is,  in  fact,  scarcely 
anything  more  characteristic  of  the  later  Greeks  than  the 
extent  to  which  parody  prevailed.  It  indicates  how  far  the 
critical  spirit  was  supplanting  the  creative;  for  while  few 
can  create,  any  one  can  ridicule  that  which  has  been 
created. 

In  the  fifth  century,  the  mock-heroic  was  represented 
in  the  Batrachomyomachia,  or  Battle  of  the  Frogs  mid  Mice, 
ascribed  to  one  Pigres.  It  is  not  in  itself,  however,  a 
direct  parody  any  more  than  is  Pope's  Rape  of  the  Lock; 
but  like  that,  it  may  be  called  pure  literature.  With  Hege- 
mon  of  Thasos,  however,  true  Parody  begins.  Hegemon 
directly  burlesqued  the  epic  Gigantomachia  in  a  play  to 
which  the  Athenians  were  listening  when  the  news  came  to 
them  that  their  Sicilian  expedition  in  the  Peloponnesian 
War  had  been  utterly  destroyed.^  A  more  audacious 
parodist  was  INIatron  of  Pitana  (c.  380  B.C.),  who  was 
the  first  to  burlesque  Homer.  From  him  we  have  a 
fragment  which  mocks  the  opening  lines  of  the  Odyssey.'^ 
The  first  line  shows  that  this  parody  was  of  a  gastronomical 
nature,  for  it  reads :  — 

AeiTTva  fxOL  ecnrere,  Movcra,  ■7ro\vTpo(f>a  koI  fxdXa  iroXXd ! 

Sing  to  me,  Muse,  of  the  feasts  that  are  falling  and  many  in  number! 

The  philosophers  were  parodied  by  Timon  of  Phlius, 

^  Athenceus,  i.  p.  5;    Hi.  p.  108. 

'  Athenffius,  iv.  pp.  134-137,  and  Moser,  Ueber  Matron  den  Parodiker 
in  Daub  and  Kreuzer's  Stiidien,  vi.  pp.  293  foil. 


78  HISTORY    or    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

known  as  the  Sillographer,  whose  silU  (aiWoi)  *  guyed 
the  teaching  of  the  dogmatic  philosophers  in  epic  verse. 
The  classic  tragedy  was  burlesqued,  though  at  a  later 
period,  by  Rhinthon  of  Tarentum  (or  Syracuse)  in  plays  which 
gave  rise  to  the  so-called  mock  tragedy  (iXaporpa'ymSLa)^ 
or  la  tragedie  pour  rire.  It  must  be  said  also  that  a  certain 
ironical  spirit  appears  in  a  collection  by  Aristotle  of  ques- 
tions intended  to  point  out  some  of  the  inconsistencies  or 
absurdities  in  Homer  {Upo^XrjixaTo). 

There  are  evidences  that  during  the  latter  part  of  this 
period  a  good  deal  of  confusion  existed  in  the  texts  of  stand- 
ard authors.  It  is  known  that  Aristotle  himself  edited  a 
special  edition  of  Homer  for  the  use  of  his  pupil,  Alexander 
the  Great,  —  an  edition  known  as  "  the  casket  edition." 
It  is  also  a  tradition  that  Lycurgus  {c.  350  B.C.),  the 
Athenian  (not  to  be  confounded  with  Lycurgus  the  mythi- 
cal Spartan  legislator),  erected  bronze  statues  to  the  three 
great  tragic  poets,  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides, 
and  caused  authentic  copies  of  their  plays  to  be  made  and 
preserved  in  the  public  archives.  These  copies  were  made 
after  a  careful  collation  of  the  actors'  copies.  Concerning 
this  recension,  however,  very  little  is  known,  though  the  fact 
itself  is  significant.^     Even  if  the  State  codex  prepared  by 

'Literally  "Squints."  Cf.  our  theatrical  slang,  "It's  a  scream!" 
See  Paul,  Dc  Sillis  (Berlin,  1821);  Delapicrre,  La  Parodie  chez  les  Grecs, 
etc.  (London,  1871),  and  Carroll,  Aristotle's  Poetics,  etc.  (Baltimore,  1895). 

^  Wilamowitz,  in  Hermes,  xiv.  151;  and  id.,  Introduction  to  the  Hera- 
kiss  of  Euripides  (Berlin,  1889). 


THE   PRiE- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  79 

Lycurgus  was  only  a  careful  exemplar  and  not  very  criti- 
cally made,  it  still  remains  a  work  of  great  importance  in 
the  history  of  Text  Criticism,  because  down  to  the  time  of 
the  Alexandrians,  it  remained  a  standard  edition  and  was 
held  in  great  esteem.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  it 
really  did  rest  upon  a  critical  basis,  since  there  was  no 
lack  of  editions,  nor  could  an  arbitrarily  chosen  text  have 
attained  to  so  much  authority.  Granting  also  that  the 
critical  comparison  of  manuscripts  had  not  long  existed, 
there  were  certainly  autographa  preserved  in  the  families 
of  the  tragic  poets.  Furthermore,  there  was  an  orig- 
inal codex  in  each  instance,  an  assertion  that  cannot  be 
made  regarding  the  Homeric  text.  The  original  codex, 
however  carefully  copied,  must  still  have  contained  errors, 
and  may  have  been  supplied  with  marginal  notes  after 
being  compared  with  the  version  used  by  the  actors  in  the 
theatre.  More  than  this,  however,  it  is  impossible  to  say; 
for,  regarding  the  methods  of  recension,  no  actual  evidence 
survives. 

Attention  was  much  earlier  given  to  Music  than  to  the 
other  arts,  and  the  study  of  it  had  a  scientific  character. 
Many  treatises  are  spoken  of  with  the  title  liepX  MovaiKri<;, 
though  none  of  them  have  descended  to  our  times.  The 
earliest  known  writer  on  music  was  Lasus  of  Hermione, 
a  contemporary  of  Xenophanes  and  Simonides,  and  said 
to  have  been  the  teacher  of  Pindar.  He  is  a  figure  of 
importance  in  the  history  of  Greek  music,  introducing  in 


8o  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  dithyramb  a  much  greater  freedom  of  rhythm  in  music, 
giving  to  it  an  accompaniment  of  flutes,  and  adding  to  the 
number  of  voices.  By  some  he  was  numbered  among  the 
Seven  Sages  of  Greece.^  The  Pythagoreans  were  espe- 
cially devoted  to  music,  among  them,  the  famous  Archytas 
of  Tarentum,  who  wrote  a  treatise  with  the  title  'ApfMovtKov. 
In  the  case  of  many  of  the  writings  that  have  descended  to 
us  by  report  only,  it  is  impossible  to  be  certain  of  their 
exact  subject,  inasmuch  as  poetry  and  music  were  so  closely 
allied  that  the  name  Movo-lk'^  was  used  indifferently  of  either. 
The  only  important  treatise,  written  perhaps  in  the  Alex- 
andrian Age,  of  which  now  we  have  any  portion,  is  that 
by  Aristoxenus  styled  'Ap/xoviKo,  Irotxeta,  of  which  there 
still  remain  some  fragments,  edited  by  Saran.^ 

The  foundation  of  classical  music  among  the  Greeks  was 
ascribed  by  them  to  Terpander,  an  iEolian  Greek  of  Lesbos 
(c.  675  B.C.),  who  is  said  to  have  given  the  lyre  seven 
strings  instead  of  four;  but  this  statement  is  certainly  inac- 
curate. Pausanius^  says  that  Terpander  merely  added 
four  strings  to  the  seven  that  already  existed  on  the  lyre. 
Flute-playing  was  still  older,  but  was  not  scientifically 
studied  until  the  time  of  Sacadas  of  Argos  (c.  580  B.C.), 

The  vocal  music  of  the  ancients  differed  from  modern 
music  in  that  part-singing  was  unknown,  there  being  only 

'  See  Athenaeus,  viii.  p.  338,  and  Diog.  Laert.  i.  42. 

*  Edited  by  Saran  (Leipzig,  1893). 

*  iii.  12.  10.    Terpander  first  set  poetry  to  music. 


THE   PR^- ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  8 1 

a  difference  of  octaves,  as  when  men  and  boys  sang  in  the 
same  chorus.  Another  difference  was  in  the  modes,  which 
were  distinguished  from  each  other  by  the  place  of  the 
semitones  in  the  octave.  Greek  music  had  seven  modes, 
therefore,  as  against  the  two  modes  (major  and  minor) 
with  which  we  are  acquainted.  These  seven  modes  got 
their  names  from  the  three  great  divisions  of  the  Greeks 
(Dorian,  ^ohan,  and  Ionian)  and  from  the  Asiatic  peoples 
(Phrygian,  Lydian,  Mixolydian,  and  Hypolydian).^ 

The  musical  notation  used  by  the  Greeks  had  two  dis- 
tinct systems  of  signs,  one  for  the  voice  and  the  other 
for  the  instrument.  Those  for  the  voice  were  taken  from 
the  Ionic  alphabet ;  while  the  instrumental  notation  was 
derived  from  the  first  fourteen  letters  of  an  older  alphabet 
which  retained  the  digamma,  besides  an  ancient  form 
of  iota,  and  two  forms  of  lambda.  Only  a  few  specimens 
of  Greek  musical  notation  have  come  down  to  us,  the 
last  being  a  hymn  to  Apollo  found  at  Delphi  in  1893 
carved  upon  the  fragments  of  a  stone.  It  has  been 
reconstructed  by  Oscar  Fleischer,  whose  theory  is  that 
"  Greek  melody  emanated  from  the  words,  while  rhythm 

*  See  Engel,  The  Music  of  the  Most  Ancient  Nations  (London,  1866); 
Gevaert,  Histoire  et  Theorie  de  la  Musigue  dans  VAntiquite  (Ghent,  i88i); 
Westphal,  Die  Musik  des  griechischen  Alterlhums  (Leipzig,  1887);  Monro, 
Modes  oj  Ancient  Greek  Music  (Oxford,  1894);  Henderson,  How  Music 
Developed  (New  York,  1898);  and  Gleditsch  in  Iwan  Muller's  Hand- 
buch  der  classischen  Alterthumswissenschaft,  ii.  3,  3d  ed.  (Munich,  1901). 
For  a  simple  account  of  early  music,  see  Untersteiner,  A  Short  History  of 
Music,  pp.  13-45  (New  York,  1902). 
G 


82  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

and  metre  were  given  by  the  musical  accents  of  the 
words."  ^  Greek  music  was  introduced  at  Rome  and  was 
greatly  admired.  Nero  gave  public  entertainments 
resembling  modern  concerts,  and  Domitian  (86  a.d.)  built 
a  large  structure,  which  he  called  the  Odeum,  for  the 
musical  exercises  that  were  held  there  under  his  direction.^ 

Greek  painting  reached  its  highest  development  at  the 
same  time  with  sculpture.  Even  earlier  fresco-painting 
had  been  borrowed  from  the  Egyptians,  and  vase-paint- 
ing which  we  can  trace  through  existing  remains,  shows  us 
how  continuous  was  the  development.  One  may  believe 
that  the  graphic  art  in  Greece  began  as  early  as  the  eighth 
century  B.C.;  and  Eumares  of  Athens  began  to  distinguish 
the  sexes  in  his  paintings,  probably  by  the  use  of  various 
colours,  since  heretofore  artists  had  worked  in  mono- 
chrome on  walls  or  whitened  tablets  of  clay. 

But  the  greatest  painters  were  those  who  appeared 
soon  after  the  Persian  w^ars.  Polygnotus  of  Thasos  was 
called  the  discoverer  of  the  art,  taking  subjects  from 
mythology  (460  B.C.).  His  contemporaries  treated  events  of 
recent  history,  decorating  the  public  buildings  and  temples. 
Polygnotus  used  only  four  colours — black,  white,  yellow, 
and  red  —  yet  gave  variety  to  his  painting  by  the  differ- 
ence   in    shading.      Soon    afterward    the    scene-painter, 

^See  Fleischer,  Die  Resie  der  allgriechischen  Tonkunst  (Leipzig,  1900). 

2  Little  can  be  learned  about  music  from  Roman  writers,  such  as 
Martianus  Capella  and  Boethius,  since  they  merely  copy  what  they 
learned  from  the  Greeks. 


THE    PRiE-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  83 

Agatharchus  of  Samos,  discovered  new  principles  of  per- 
spective and  shading,  on  which  subjects  he  wrote  a  book. 
His  methods  were  followed  on  panels  by  Apollodorus  of 
Athens  and  others.  The  school  which  he  founded  was 
usually  called  the  Ionic  School,  and  it  comprised  the  two 
great  rivals,  Zeuxis,  who  copied  nature  with  wonderful 
truth,  and  Parrhasius  of  Ephesus.  Encaustic  painting 
was  perfected  by  Pausias,  in  the  fourth  century,  and  his 
"Black  Ox"  was  as  famous  in  antiquity  as  Paul  Potter's 
bull  in  modern  times.  Great  skill  was  attained  by 
Apelles  of  Ephesus,  whose  work  was  very  graceful.  We 
have  scarcely  any  remains  of  Grecian  paintings  of  the 
classical  age  except  those  which  are  found  upon  the  tombs, 
usually  Etruscan,  and  often  copied  from  Greek  models.^ 
Gem-cutting  was  learned  from  the  Greeks  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  Greeks  greatly  im- 
proved upon  their  models.  For  cutting  gems  they  used  a 
sharp  stone  (obsidian)  or  a  minute  metal  disk  vsorked  by  a 
drill  which  cut  the  deeper  parts  of  the  pattern.  The  tools 
were  charged  with  a  sort  of  emery  powder.^  The  Greeks 
cared  little  for  the  Egyptian  scarabs,  and  preferred 
cameos  made  of  onyx,  the  figures  standing  out  vividly  on 
a  dark  background.     The  oldest  Greek  jeweller  whose 

*  See  Woltmann  and  Woermann,  A  History  of  Painting.  Eng.  trans. 
(New  York,  1901) ;  Girard,  La  Peinture  Antique  (Paris,  1895)  ;  Cros  and 
Henri,  L'Encaustique  (Paris,  18S4);  and  Bockler,  Die  Polychromie  in 
der  antiken  Sculptiir  (Aschersleben,  1882). 

2  Piiny,  //.  N.  xxvii.  76. 


84  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

name  has  come  down  to  us  is  Mnesarchus,  the  father  of 
the  philosopher  Pythagoras  {c.  600  B.C.).  The  most 
famous  master  of  gem-cutting  in  Greek  times  was  Pyrgo- 
teles  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.  He  was  the  only  artist 
whom  Alexander  the  Great  would  allow  to  cut  his  like- 
ness. It  may  be  added  that  not  until  later  times  did  the 
love  of  precious  stones  such  as  pearls  and  emeralds 
become  a  passion.^ 

The  Prae-Alexandrian  Period  may  be  viewed  as  end- 
ing with  the  death  of  Aristotle  (322  B.C.)  and  the  complete 
domination  of  Greece  by  the  Macedonian  kings.  The 
supremacy  of  Macedon,  in  fact,  marks  the  decadence  of 
what  had  been  most  original  and  striking  in  the  genius  of 
the  Greeks,  whether  political,  literary,  or  philosophical. 
The  history  of  this  period  reveals  in  Greece  the  gradual 
development  and  decline  that  have  been  repeated  in  the 
history  of  every  other  nation  since  the  world  began,  when- 
ever that  history  has  extended  over  a  sufficient  time  to 
give  play  to  the  same  creative  and  the  same  destructive 
forces.  So  in  Greece  we  find  at  first  a  vigorous  and 
quick-witted  people,  in  its  formative  period,  cherishing  a 
comparatively  simple  and  intelligible  faith,  and  with  a 
literature  that  springs  up  less  as  the  result  of  conscious 
art  than  as  the  spontaneous  outpouring  of  native  genius, 

^  See  Middleton,  The  Engraved  Gems  of  Classical  Times  (Cambridge, 
1891);  Murray,  A  Handbook  of  Greek  Archceology,  pp.  40-50,  146-173 
(London,  1S92) ;  and  Fowler  and  Wheeler,  A  Handbook  of  Greek  Arch- 
aology,  ch.  vii  (New  York,  1909). 


THE    PR^-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  85 

seeking  to  give  fit  expression  to  the  national  aspirations. 
Gradually  the  notion  of  formal  art  and  formulaic  teaching 
is  implanted  in  men's  minds.  Schools  arise,  and  what 
the  few  have  done  before  from  natural  prompting,  the 
many  learn  to  do  according  to  rule  and  precept. 

"  Most  can  raise  the  flowers  now 
For  all  have  got  the  seed." 

The  first  result  is  to  develop  to  the  full  the  powers  of 
men  of  genius.  There  is  a  happy  blending  of  the  old 
creative  gifts,  and  of  the  old  freshness  and  spontaneity, 
with  the  power  that  comes  from  training  and  from  the 
condensation  of  accumulated  experience  into  definite  rules. 
The  Greek  mind,  thus  stimulated  and  developed,  attacks 
all  of  the  great  problems  that  confront  and  challenge  the 
human  intellect.  The  philosophy  of  language,  the  sources 
of  style,  the  arts  of  expression,  the  theory  of  government, 
the  laws  of  thought,  the  constitution  of  the  universe,  and 
the  nature  of  the  gods  themselves,  are  all  explained  fear- 
lessly and  often  with  an  acuteness  that  has  never  found  its 
parallel.  But  the  limitations  of  the  mind  are  at  last 
reached,  and  its  most  earnest  efforts  appear  to  lead  to 
nescience;  so  that  Greece  in  the  sphere  of  government 
ended  with  despotism,  in  philosophy  with  negation,  in 
religion  with  scepticism.  The  Greek  genius  in  its  later 
struggles  can  best  be  described  in  Matthew  Arnold's 
exquisite  words  as  "  a  beautiful  and  ineffectual  angel  beat- 
ing in  the  void  its  luminous  wings  in  vain." 


86  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

There  is  some  truth  in  the  belief  that  a  general  and  highly 
developed  culture  is  fatal  to  originality,  because  it  inevi- 
tably leads  to  established  standards  and  thus  makes  every- 
thing conventional.  A  dead  level  of  excellence  takes  the 
place  of  a  few  striking  manifestations  of  creative  power. 
The  average  man  is  more  intelligent,  but  the  exceptional 
man  is  less  original,  until  at  last  exceptional  men  no  more 
exist.  Society  becomes  intellectually  hlase  and  reduces 
everything  to  formulas.  Creators  give  place  to  critics  who 
are  slaves  to  what  they  call  "  good  form."  But  it  is  not 
consistent  with  good  form  to  be  imaginative  and  enthusi- 
astic and  original.  This  is  held  to  be  eccentric.  Thus  in 
a  highly  civilised  community  the  whole  drift  of  thought  is 
toward  the  commonplace;  and  thus  in  the  later  philosophy, 
the  speculative  and  idealistic  systems  give  way  to  a  sort  of 
mild  eclecticism  that  does  not  go  very  far  beyond  the  prac- 
tical questions  which  relate  to  the  life  of  every  day.  The 
epic  is  supplanted  by  the  drama  with  its  many  meretri- 
cious allurements.  In  the  drama  itself  the  intense  and 
powerful  tragedies  of  ^schylus  and  Sophocles  are  first 
thrust  aside  by  the  rationalistic  and  rather  cynical  plays  of 
Euripides,^  until  tragedy  gives  way  to  the  elegant  and  amus- 
ing comedy  of  Menander,  with  its  urbane  dialogue  and  its 
realism,  which  takes  it  out  of  the  realm  of  pure  poetry.^ 

^  Stt&W e^rraW,  Euripides  the  Rationalist,  mirodncti on  and  pp.  257-60 
(Cambridge,  1895) !  ^'^d  Decharme,  Euripides  and  ilie  Spirit  of  his 
Dramas,  pp.  74-92.     Eng.  trans.  (New  York,  1906). 

^  Horace,  Sat.  i.  4,  46-47. 


THE    PRiE-ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  87 

The  Prae- Alexandrian  Age  ends,  then,  when  the  creative 
impulse  had  largely  yielded  to  the  critical.  What  remained 
for  serious  men,  therefore,  was  not  to  attempt  an}'thing 
new,  but  rather  to  study  what  had  already  been  produced 

—  to  analyse,  to  criticise,  and  to  classify.  Thus  there 
came  into  especial  prominence  the  sciences  that  are  col- 
lateral and  subsidiary  to  literature  and    linguistic  study 

—  hermeneutics,  lexicography,  text  criticism,  and  formal 
grammar. 

[Bibliography.  —  In  addition  to  the  books  already  cited  in  this 
chapter,  see  the  anecdotal  works  of  Diogenes  Laertius,  English 
translation  (London,  1853),  and  Athen^us,  English  translation 
(London,  1854);  together  with  Saintsbury,  A  History  of  Criticism, 
i->  PP-  3-59  (New  York,  1900);  Jebb,  The  Growth  and  Influence  oj 
Classical  Greek  Poetry  (London,  1S93)  ;  Haigh,  The  Tragic  Drama 
of  the  Greeks  (Oxford,  1S96);  Denis,  La  Comedie  Grecque,  2  vols. 
(Paris,  1886);  Croiset,  An  Abridged  History  of  Greek  Literature, 
English  translation  (New  York,  1904);  and  Courthope,  Life  in 
Poetry:  Law  in  Taste,  pp.  37-221  (London,  1901).] 


Ill 

THE  ALEXANDRIAN  PERIOD 
A.    The  Alexandrian  School 

In  the  year  306  e.g.,  Demetrius  Phalereus,  statesman, 
poet,  philosopher,  and  orator,  having  been  sentenced  to 
death  at  Athens,  left  Greece  and  passed  over  the  sea  to 
the  infant  city  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  It  was  exactly 
twenty-five  years  from  the  time  when  Alexander  the 
Great,  had,  with  his  own  hand,  traced  the  general  plan 
of  the  city  to  which  he  gave  his  name  and  as  to  which 
he  issued  the  most  peremptory  orders  that  it  should  be 
made  the  metropolis  of  the  entire  world.  The  commands 
of  a  king  cannot  give  enduring  greatness  to  a  city;  but 
the  natural  advantages  of  Alexandria  were  such  that  a 
great  commercial  community,  when  planted  there,  was 
sure  to  live  and  flourish  throughout  succeeding  ages. 

Alexandria  lay  upon  a  projecting  tongue  of  land,  so 
situated  that  the  whole  trade  of  the  Mediterranean  centred 
in  it.  Down  the  Nile  there  floated  to  its  wharves  the 
wealth  of  barbaric  Africa.  To  it  also  came  the  treasures 
of  the  East,  carried  over  vast  spaces  by  caravans  —  silks 
from  China,  spices  and  jewels  from  India,  and  enormous 
masses  of  gold  and  silver  from  lands  of  which  the  names 
were  scarcely  known  even  to  contemporary  geographers. 

88 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  89 

In  its  harbour  were  the  vessels  of  every  country,  from 
Asia  in  the  East,  to  Spain  and  Gaul  and  even  Britain  in 
the  West. 

To  the  outward  eye,  Alexandria  was  extremely  beautiful. 
Through    its    entire    length    ran   two    great   boulevards, 
shaded  by  mighty  trees,  and  diversified  by  parterres  of 
multicoloured  flowers  amid  which  fountains  splashed  and 
costly  marbles  gleamed.     One-fifth  of  the  whole  city  was 
reserved  for  the  Greek  kings  who  succeeded  Alexander, 
and  was  known  as  the  Royal  Residence.     In  it,  before 
long,  were  the  palaces  of  the  reigning  family;    and  there 
were,  besides,  parks  and  gardens,  brilliant  with  tropical 
foliage  and   adorned  with  masterpieces  of  Grecian  sculp- 
ture, while  sphinxes   and   obelisks  gave  a  suggestion  of 
oriental    strangeness.     As   one   looked   seaward,    his   eye 
beheld,  over  the  blue  water,  the  rocks  of  the  sheltering 
island,  Pharos,  on  which  Ptolemy  II.  reared  a  pjTamidal 
lighthouse  of  marble  four  hundred  feet  in  height  at  a 
cost  of  eight  hundred  silver  talents  ($940,000),  and  justly 
numbered  among  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.     At 
the  time  when  Demetrius  took  refuge  there,  the  city  con- 
tained more  than  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and 
was  humming  with  life.     Its  people  were  alert,  energetic, 
proud  of  Alexandria's  distinction,  and  ambitious  for  its 
future.     Dinocrates,  its  designer,  had  planned  it  with  a 
sublime  belief  in  its  destiny,  giving  it  a  circumference  of 
more  than  fifteen  miles,  and  foreseeing  already  its  coming 


go  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

splendour.  Ptolemy  Soter,  who  was  just  about  to  assume 
the  style  and  title  of  a  king,  was  a  man  of  large  concep- 
tions and  liberal  ideas.  His  mother  had  been  a  con- 
cubine of  Philip  of  Macedon,  so  that  Ptolemy  was  believed 
to  be  half-brother  to  the  great  Alexander,  under  whom 
he  had  served  with  conspicuous  success  in  Asia.  A  great 
soldier  and  a  consummate  statesman,  he  was  also  a  true 
Greek  in  his  love  of  art  and  science  and  literature.  In 
fact,  he  had  himself  written  a  narrative  of  the  wars  of 
Alexander.^  He  was  still  carrying  on  a  campaign  against 
Antigonus;  but  the  contest  was  nearing  its  end,  and  al- 
ready Ptolemy  was  turning  his  thoughts  to  magnificent 
designs  for  enhancing  the  glory  and  splendour  of  his 
capital. 

It  was  the  psychological  moment  for  some  remarkable 
achievement.  All  the  conditions  were  absolutely  favour- 
able. Here  was  a  rich,  populous,  and  youthful  city, 
possessing  the  Hellenic  traditions  of  intellectual  greatness, 
yet  growing  up  in  a  world  that  was  broader  than  little 
Hellas.  Its  people  were  receptive  to  new  ideas,  liberal- 
ised by  contact  with  a  civilisation  far  older  than  that  of 
Greece  itself,  and  filled  with  an  intense  desire  to  gain  at 
once,  not  only  the  commercial,  but  the  intellectual  su- 
premacy of  the  world.     The  first   Greek  king  of  Egypt 

'  This  narrative  was  largely  used  by  Arrian  in  preparing  his  chief 
work,  the  Anabasis  of  Alexander.  The  fragments  of  Ptolemy's  work 
can  be  found  in  the  Didot  edition  of  Arrian  (Paris,  184S). 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  9 1 

possessed  practically  unlimited  resources.  He  was  gifted 
with  a  trained  intelligence  and  taste,  and  inspired  with  a 
splendid  enthusiasm  for  all  that  was  noble  and  refining. 
The  suggestion  alone  was  needed  to  employ  these  unusual 
opportunities  in  a  way  that  should  be  worthy  of  their 
inherent  possibilities.  Such  a  suggestion  came  from  the 
exiled  Athenian,  Demetrius  Phalereus. 

Demetrius  himself  was  a  man  well  fitted  to  influence 
even  so  independent  a  ruler  as  King  Ptolemy.  He  was 
among  the  last  of  the  Attic  orators  of  distinction.  He 
had  governed  his  native  city  so  ably  that  three  hundred 
and  ninety  statues  had  been  erected  by  the  Athenians  in 
his  honour.  He  was  also  a  highly  cultivated  scholar,  the 
schoolmate  of  Menander,  and  a  pupil  of  Theophrastus, 
who  succeeded  Aristotle  at  the  head  of  the  Peripatetic 
School.  To  him  was  due  the  revival  of  Homeric  recita- 
tion by  the  Rhapsodes,  after  these  had  fallen  into  disuse. 
He  was  himself  the  author  of  two  books  relating  to  the 
Iliad  and  four  relating  to  the  Odyssey,  supposed  to  have 
dealt  with  text  criticism.  No  one  could  have  been  better 
fitted  than  he  to  advise  the  king  in  whatever  related  to 
any  project  for  the  advancement  of  learning.  There- 
fore, one  is  not  surprised  that  to  him  is  ascribed  the  sug- 
gestion which  soon  rendered  Alexandria  the  intellectual 
capital  of  the  world  and  profoundly  influenced  the  sub- 
sequent history  of  Greek  and  Roman  learning.  The  im- 
mediate fruits  of  his  wise  counsel  were  two  —  the  estab- 


92  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

lishment  of  a  great  Museum  (to  Mvaelov),  and  also  the 
foundation  of  the  famous  Alexandrian  Library/ 

An  account  of  the  Museum  is  given  by  Strabo.^  It 
was  attached  to  the  royal  palace  in  the  most  beautiful 
quarter  of  the  city,  overlooking  the  harbour,  and  sur- 
rounded by  lawns,  porticos,  and  marvels  of  decorative 
art.  It  contained  an  observatory  for  its  astronomers, 
laboratories,  a  selected  library,  and  a  great  hall  which  was 
practically  a  theatre  of  magnificent  proportions  arranged 
as  a  public  lecture  room.  In  a  second  hall,  the  scholars 
who  were  drawn  to  the  Museum  from  all  countries 
dined  together,  like  the  master  and  fellows  of  an  English 
college.  Attached  to  the  Museum  were  botanical  and 
zoological  gardens.  The  object  of  the  whole  institution 
was  to  encourasfe  oriojinal  research.  At  first  there 
was  no  teaching,  so  that  the  Museum  bore  a  strik- 
ing resemblance  to  the  Carnegie  Institution  in  Washing- 
ton. Later  it  became  in  essence  a  great  university  in 
which  the  professors  lectured,  each  on  his  own  specialty, 
to  students  who  numbered  at  one  time  as  many  as  four- 
teen thousand.  The  professors  were  primarily  under  the 
supervision  of  principals  whom  we  may  call  deans,  chosen 
by   the   whole   body;     while   the    administration    of  the 

'  Athenasus,  v.  p.  203. 

'  Strabo,  xviii.  p.  794.  See  also  Parthey,  Das  Alexandrtnische  Museum 
(Berlin,  1838);  Ritschl,  Opuscula,  i.  pp.  1-70,  123-172,  197-237;  Weniger, 
Das  Alexandrinische  Museum  (1895);  Walden,  The  Universities  of  Ancient 
Greece,  pp.  48-50  (New  York,  1909);  Graves,  A  History  of  Education 
before  the  Middle  Ages  (New  York,  1909). 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  93 

Museum  was  in  the  hands  of  a  priest  appointed  by  the 
king  and  in  later  times  by  the  Roman  emperor.  The 
expense  of  the  whole  was  borne  by  the  pubHc  treasury. 
The  second  Ptolemy  grouped  the  lecturers  under  four 
faculties  representing,  respectively,  Literature,  Mathe- 
matics, Astronomy,  and  Medicine,  corresponding  to  the 
modern  divisions  of  Philosophy,  Applied  Science,  Pure 
Science,  and  Medicine. 

The  administrative  head  of  the  Museum  was  not,  how- 
ever, charged  with  all  the  functions  of  an  American  uni- 
versity president  or  chancellor.  We  find  in  Alexandria 
a  practical  division  of  duties  such  as  has  been  proposed 
in  very  recent  times,  became  it  seems  impossible  for  a 
single  man  to  be  at  once  the  administrative  and  the  edu- 
cational  head  of  a  great  university.  The  educational 
head  of  the  University  at  Alexandria  was  the  person  in 
charge  of  the  great  Library,  which  sprang  up  side  by 
side  with  the  Museum,  and  was  necessitated  by  it. 
The  second  Ptolemy  collected  from  all  parts  of  Greece 
and  Asia  an  immense  number  of  manuscripts,  some  of 
which,  as  already  said,  were  stored  in  the  Museum, 
while  the  rest  were  housed  separately  in  another  building 
known  as  the  Serapeum.  Foreign  books  were  also  pur- 
chased and  translations  of  them  were  added  to  the  Library.* 
The  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old  Testament  is  said  to 

'  Callimachus,  the  second  librarian,  was  the  first  to  introduce  a  num- 
ber of  Egyptian  and  Hebrew  manuscripts. 


94  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

have  been  thus  made.  Galen  mentions  the  fact  that  the 
autographa  or  original  copies  of  yEschylus,  Sophocles, 
and  Euripides  were  purchased  for  the  Library,  which  is 
believed  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  fame  to  have  contained 
between  five  hundred  thousand  and  six  hundred  thousand 
volumes/  Even  before  the  death  of  Demetrius  there 
were  some  fifty  thousand  volumes  on  its  shelves.  Private 
collections  such  as  that  of  Aristotle  were  purchased,  as 
well  as  rare  editions  and  especially  authoritative  copies. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  how  the  existence  of  an  endowed 
school  side  by  side  with  a  library  of  such  magnificent  pro- 
portions would  quickly  foster  the  systematic  and  orderly 
study  of  many  subjects  that  had  previously  been  taken 
up  at  random  by  individuals,  working  independently  and 
often  with  very  unsatisfactory  and  inadequate  materials. 
At  last,  in  every  sphere  of  learning,  a  large  body  of  highly 
trained  men,  provided  with  every  facility  for  research 
and  freed  from  any  pecuniary  anxiety,  could  labour  with- 
out haste  and  without  rest,  apportioning  their  work  so 
as  to  bring  into  play  the  peculiar  talents  of  each,  and 
accumulating  a  great  mass  of  data  —  of  facts,  results, 
and  principles,  which  each  succeeding  generation  found 
classified  for  its  use  and  to  which  in  turn  it  added.  Hence, 
at  once   a  great  development  of  the   scientific   spirit   in 

'  See  Ritschl,  Die  Alexandrmischen  Bibliotheken  (Breslau,  1838);  Birt, 
Das  Antike  Buckwesen  (Berlin,  1882);  Geraud,  Les  Livres  dans  VAntiquite, 
ch.  X  (Paris,  1840);  Castellani,  Delle  Biblioleche  neW  Antichita  (Bologna, 
1884). 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN    PERIOD  95 

every  direction  followed  almost  immediately  upon  the 
establishment  of  the  Museum  and  Library  and  what  is 
roughly  and  somewhat  inaccurately  styled  the  Alexan- 
drian School.  There  were,  in  fact,  several  distinct  cut- 
growths  from  the  Alexandrian  researches  and  training, 
but  there  was  no  "  school  "  at  all  in  the  sense  given  to 
that  word  when  we  speak  of  the  Ionic  School,  or  the 
Pythagorean  School,  or  the  Stoic  School.  In  each  of 
these  a  number  of  able  men  were  all  dominated  by  cer- 
tain common  philosophical  principles  and  ideas  and 
holding  fast  to  a  common  theory.  But  at  Alexandria 
such  was  not  the  case.  The  learned  men  who  lived 
together  in  the  Museum  had  no  single  philosophy  and 
held  no  theory  in  common.  Their  activities  took  the 
most  diverse  direction.  The  only  thing  that  all  of  them 
possessed  together  was  a  love  of  science  and  of  scientific 
methods.  It  would  be  far  more  proper  to  speak  of  the 
"  schools  "  at  Alexandria,  since  there  were  really  many, 
—  a  school  of  mathematics,  a  school  of  astronomy,  a 
school  of  medicine,  a  school  of  philosophy,  a  school  of 
literature,  a  school  of  grammar  and  linguistics,  and  finally, 
a  school  of  textual  criticism.^ 

Yet  these  different  schools  had  one  characteristic  so 

'See  St.  Hilaire,  De  VEcole  d'Alexandrie  (Paris,  1845);  Simon, 
Histoire  de  VEcole  d'Alexaiidrle,  2  vols.  (Paris,  1844-45);  and  Vacherot, 
Histoire  Critique  de  VEcole  d'Alexandrie,  3  vols.  (Paris,  1846-51).  Kings- 
ley's  Alexandrian  Schools  (Cambridge,  1854)  is  disappointing  and  re- 
lates only  to  the  philosophical  side. 


g6  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

far  in  common  as  to  give  a  sort  of  family  likeness  to  all 
the  productions  of  the  Alexandrian  scholars,  and  thus  in 
some  measure  to  justify  us  in  speaking  of  the  Alexandrian 
"  school."  Just  as  the  writings  of  the  earlier  Greeks 
exhibit  a  certain  instinctive  originality  and  freshness  of 
thought,  so  the  writings  of  the  Alexandrians  are  steeped 
in  erudition.  They  smell  of  the  lamp.  Before  all  else, 
they  are  learned  productions;  and  this  is  the  trait  that 
belongs  to  every  single  work  that  came  from  their  hands. 
It  is  seen  no  less  in  their  literature  than  in  their  science. 
A  German  writer  has  very  aptly  said:  "  It  is  as  though 
the  great  library  strove  to  reproduce  itself  in  each  indi- 
vidual work."  Therefore  we  find  the  Alexandrian  Poetry, 
such  as  that  of  Callimachus,  Aratus,  and  Apollonius, 
suggesting  to  the  reader  at  every  turn  a  learned  treatise. 
So  Philetas  of  Cos  (c.  300  B.C.),  though  a  writer  of  elegies, 
died  from  overwork  in  scientific  study.  It  was  he,  in- 
deed, who  made  the  first  attempt  at  an  Homeric  lexicon 
("Ara/cTa,  TXcoaaai).^  The  astronomers  and  the  mathe- 
maticians were  morbidly  anxious  about  the  rhetorical  and 
grammatical  merits  of  the  language  in  which  they  wrote 
of  the  equinoxes  and  the  ecliptic,  or  the  solution  of  the 
quadratic  equation.  So,  again,  the  geographers  and  his- 
torians supplied  their  treatises  with  archaeological  notes. 
And  thus,  at  first,  even  the  most  abstract  lectures  were 
given  in  verse.  It  was  an  age  of  encyclopaedic  scholar- 
•  See  Couat,  La  Focsie  Alexandrine,  pp.  68  foil.  (Paris,  1882). 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  97 

ship;  and  it  tinges  the  Alexandrian  epics  and  dramas 
no  less  than  the  treatises  on  grammar  and  lexicography. 
This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  Alexandrian  Influence, — 
an  influence  that  was  afterward  so  powerfully  felt  at 
Rome,  where  it  reproduced  itself  in  the  writings  of  Varro, 
the  polymath,  no  less  than  in  the  lines  of  Vergil,  the  most 
learned  of  all  the  Latin  poets. 

It  is  precisely  because  the  whole  tendency  of  the  Alex- 
andrians was  toward  reflection  and  research  that  their 
work  in  pure  literature  was  of  slight  aesthetic  value,  being 
formal,  pedantic,  and  void  of  imagination,  and  that  their 
philosophy  was  marked  by  a  learned  eclecticism.  The 
highest  philosophy,  like  the  noblest  literature,  demands, 
in  addition  to  mere  learning,  an  intellectual  subtlety  and 
genuine  inspiration.  But  the  study  of  mathematics,  of 
mechanics,  and  of  physics  was  now  fruitful,  and  in  many 
respects  so  sure  in  its  results  as  to  be  the  admiration  of 
scientific  men  to-day;  while  no  one  can  overestimate  the 
enduring  value  of  that  systematic  labour  in  the  study  of 
language  (lexicography  and  grammar)  and  in  the  criticism 
of  texts. 

So  far  as  literature  is  concerned,  the  Alexandrians  were 
at  their  best  in  collecting  and  preserving  what  had  come 
down  to  them  from  the  preceding  centuries.  What  they 
added  of  their  own  was  vast  in  amount  and  devoid  of 
any  great  aesthetic  merit.  Little  more  than  the  names  of 
the  Alexandrian  writers  of  epics  and  lyrics  and  dramas 

H 


98  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

are  known  to-day.  Here  and  there  a  few  fragments  tell 
of  vast  volumes  which  were  read  and  even  admired  at 
Alexandria,  but  which  were  either  so  obscure  in  their 
treatment  or  so  technical  in  their  themes  as  to  deserve 
the  oblivion  that  has  come  upon  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Alexandrians  reduced  criticism 
and  the  study  of  style  to  an  exact  science.  The  first  libra- 
rian, Zenodotus  of  Ephesus  (c.  300  e.g.),  collected  the  epic 
and  lyric  poets ;  Lycophron  of  Colchis,  the  comic  poets ; 
and  Alexander  of  ^Etolus,  the  tragic  poets.  The  second 
librarian,  Callimachus  of  Cyrene  (c.  275  e.g.),  made  a 
catalogue  of  the  Library  in  one  hundred  and  twenty  books 
which  may  be  said  to  have  laid  the  foundation  for  a 
scientific  study  of  Greek  literature.  The  third  librarian, 
Eratosthenes  of  Cyrene  (c.  200  e.g.),  wrote  an  admirable 
treatise  on  geography  and  another  on  the  Old  Comedy, 
in  at  least  twelve  books,  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  sub- 
ject a  wealth  of  knowledge  and  excellent  taste.  The 
fourth  librarian,  Aristophanes  of  Byzantium  (c.  200  e.g.), 
has  been  styled  "the  greatest  philologist  of  antiquity." 
It  is  he  who  is  said  to  have  invented  the  accents  which 
are  now  employed  in  writing  Greek,  and  also  a  system 
of  punctuation.  Likewise  he  suggested  critical  signs 
{arj/xela)  and  used  them  in  his  editions  of  Hohier,  Hesiod, 
of  the  three  great  tragic  poets,  and  other  famous  writers. 
It  is  claimed  also  that  he  wrote  the  Hypotheses  or  con- 
densed plots  to  the  greater  dramatists,  with  notes  and 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  99 

aesthetic  criticisms.^  JMost  important  of  all  is  his  estab- 
lishment of  what  have  become  known  as  "the  canons" 
or  lists  of  the  very  best  authors  of  Greek  antiquity.  The 
Alexandrian  Canon ^  was  prepared  with  the  greatest  care, 
and  it  represents  the  matured  and  final  judgment  of  the 
Alexandrian  students  of  literature  as  to  those  names  of 
Greek  writers  whose  works  embodied  the  very  highest 
excellence  in  their  especial  spheres,  and  who  were  thought 
to  be  models  for  all  future  authors. 

The  details  of  the  Canon  are  as  follows:  (i)  Epic 
Poets,    Homer,  Hesiod,   Pisander,  Panyasis,  Antimachus. 

(2)  Iambic    Poets,     Archilochus,    Simonides,    Hipponax. 

(3)  Lyric  Poets,  Alcman,  Alcaeus,  Sappho,  Stesichorus, 
Pindar,  Bacchylides,  Ibycus,  Anacreon,  Simonides.  (4)  Ele- 
giac Poets,  Callinus,  Minnermus,  Philetas,  Callimachus. 
(5)  Tragic  Poets  (First  Class),  ^schylus,  Sophocles, 
Euripides,  Ion,  Achagus,  Agathon.  (Second  Class,  or 
Tragic  Pleiades),  Alexander  the  ^tolian,  Philiscus  of 
Corcyra,  Sositheus,  Plomer  the  Younger,  iEantides,  Sosi- 
phanes  or  Sosicles,  Lycophron.  (6)  Comic  Poets  (Old 
Comedy),  Epicharmus,  Cratinus,  Eupolis,  Aristophanes, 
Pherecrates,     Plato.      (Middle     Comedy),      Antiphanes, 

'  See  Gudeman,  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Classical  Philology,  3d  ed., 
pp.  11-13  (Boston,  1902),  and  infra,  pp.  100-102. 

^  The  word  canon  (Kavdv)  meant  originally  a  reed,  and  then  a  car- 
penter's rule;  so  that,  in  a  figurative  sense,  the  word  came  to  denote 
whatever  served  as  a  model  or  norm.  The  Canon  Ale.xandrinus  is 
really  made  up  of  several  canons  as  may  be  seen  in  the  text  above. 


lOO  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Alexis.  (New  Comedy),  Menander,  Philippides,  Diphi- 
lus,  Philemon,  Apollodorus.  (7)  Historians,  Herodotus, 
Thucydides,  Xenophon,  Theopompus,  Ephorus,  Philistus, 
Anaximenes,  Callisthenes.  (8)  Orators  (the  ten  Attic 
Orators),  Antiphon,  Andocides,  Lysias,  Isocrates,  Isaeus, 
iEschines,  Lycurgus,  Demosthenes,  Hyperides,  Dinarchus. 
(9)  Philosophers,  Plato,  Xenophon,  ^schines,  Aristotle, 
Theophrastus.  (10)  Poetic  Pleiades  (seven  poets  of 
the  same  epoch  with  one  another),  Apollonius  Rhodius, 
Aratus,  Philiscus,  Homer  the  Younger,  Lycophron,  Ni- 
cander,  Theocritus. 

This  Canon  was  felt  to  be  necessary  owing  to  the  great 
multitude  of  books  that  began  to  appear  in  the  Alexandrian 
Age.  There  was  a  certain  apprehension  lest  the  weight 
of  numbers  should  prevail  against  the  claims  of  real 
merit,  and  lest  the  great  classics  should  be  lost  in  a  flood 
of  innovation.  The  Canon  was  intended  to  serve  and  it 
did  serve  as  a  standard  of  comparison  by  which  all  liter- 
ary productions  must  be  judged;  and  thus  it  preserved 
purity  of  style  and  some  defmite  laws  of  literary  expres- 
sion. From  the  standpoint  of  our  own  times  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Alexandrian  Canon  wrought  both  good 
and  harm.  It  undoubtedly  led  to  the  preservation  of 
some  of  the  greatest  works  of  antiquity;  but  it  also  led 
to  the  loss  of  other  works  that  would  be  of  inestimable 
value  to  the  modern  classical  philologist.  These  latter 
works  were  allowed  to  perish  just  because  they  were  not 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN    PERIOD  lOI 

included  by  the  Alexandrian  critics  in  their  authoritative 
Hst.  The  mere  fact  that  such  a  clearly  defined  standard 
existed,  was  also,  doubtless,  an  injury  to  the  most  gifted 
writers  of  the  following  centuries.  It  fostered  a  spirit  of 
imitation  and  discouraged  the  free  play  of  their  talents 
by  compelling  them  to  a  sort  of  conformity  with  predeces- 
sors whose  genius  and  temperament  were  of  a  very  different 
type/ 

Of  original  composition  under  the  head  of  pure  litera- 
ture, the  most  interesting  genre  is  found  in  the  Idylls  of 
Theocritus,  whose  time  is  so  well  within  the  early  days 
of  this  period  as  to  make  it  doubtful  whether  it  is  wholly 
fair  to  class  him  as  an  Alexandrian.  The  lyric  poets 
come  next  in  order  of  merit,  the  best  of  them  being  Cal- 
limachus,  of  whose  work,  however,  only  a  few  hymns  and 
fragmentary  passages  and  epigrams  remain.  It  may  be 
said  that  in  the  writing  of  epigrams  the  Alexandrians  were 
very  felicitous,  as  might  have  been  expected  from  those 
who  so  carefully  studied  the  art  of  expression  and  who 
were  always  striving  after  neatness  and  precision  of  style. 
The  dramatic  works  composed  at  Alexandria  are  now 
wholly  lost.  Of  the  epics,  two  famous  specimens  remain, 
—  the  Argonautica  of  Apollonius  Rhodius,  and  the  Alex- 
andra   of    Lycophron.     The    first    is    inordinately    dull, 

*  See  Usener,  Dionysii  Halic.  Lihrorum  de  Imitationc  Rdiqtiice  (Leipzig, 
1899);  SteCfen,  De  Canone  qui  Dicihir  Aristophanis  et  Aristarchi  (Leip- 
zig, 1876);  Hartmann,  De  Canone  Decern  Oratorum  (Gottingen,  1891); 
and  Susemihl,  op.  oil.  i.  pp.  445,  484;    ii.  674  foil.  694-697. 


102  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

heavily  charged  with  ponderous  learning,  and  reading  in 
parts  like  a  dictionary  of  antiquities.  As  to  the  second, 
its  obscurity  passed  into  a  proverb  even  in  ancient  times/ 
More  truly  typical  of  the  age  are  the  so-called  "didactic 
epics"  of  Aratus  on  astronomy  and  meteorology  (after- 
wards translated  into  Latin  by  Cicero),  and  that  of  Ni- 
cander  of  Colophon  on  cures  for  poison  and  the  bites  of 
venomous  creatures.  As  time  went  on,  the  literary  work 
of  the  Alexandrians  became  more  and  more  pedantic 
and  far  less  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  pure  literature, 
until  it  came  to  an  end  not  far  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era,^ 

The  Alexandrian  Philosophy  was  always  characterised 
by  eclecticism.  It  originated  nothing.  The  most 
interesting  school  that  arose  in  Egypt  after  the  Library 
became  established  was  Jewish  or  was,  at  any  rate, 
due  largely  to  the  influence  of  Jewish  rabbis  who  began 
to  widen  their  religious  teaching,  so  as  to  admit  into 
it  some  of  the  philosophical  conceptions  of  the  earlier 
Greeks.  The  result  was  a  body  of  semi-religious  doctrine 
in  which  philosophy  and  theology  were  superficially  har- 
monised. The  most  elaborate  expounder  of  this  har- 
mony was  Aristobulus,  an  Alexandrian  Jew  (c.  i8o  B.C.) 
whose  commentaries  on  the  Mosaic  Books,  dedicated  to 
Ptolemy  Philometor,  sought  to  show  that  the  main  teach- 

'  Suidas  called  it  a  "poem  of  shadows."  The  scholia  by  Tzetzes  are 
however,  very  valuable. 

'  See  Couat,  La  Foesie  Alexatuirine  (Paris,  1882). 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  I03 

ings  of  Greek  philosophers,  especially  those  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  were  derived  from  the  Pentateuch.  Three  cen- 
turies later,  when  the  influence  of  Christianity  began  to 
be  felt,  Neo-Platonism  was  thereby  modified;  but  the 
later  Neo-Platonists  were  hostile  to  Christianity;  and 
their  system,  in  the  hands  of  lamblichus  and  Julian  the 
Apostate,  was  set  forth  as  a  substitute  both  for  Chris- 
tianity and  the  older  pagan  faith/ 

■  In  the  Pure  and  Applied  Sciences,  the  achievements  of 
the  Alexandrians  lie  somewhat  beyond  the  strict  limits  of 
classical  philology.  It  may,  however,  be  well  to  enu- 
merate some  striking  results  which  were  attained.  These 
comprise  the  measurement  of  the  sun  and  moon  by  Aris- 
tarchus  of  Samos  (310-250  b.c);  the  first  systematic 
treatise  on  geometry  by  Euclid  (c.  300  B.C.) ;  the  develop- 
ment of  the  geometry  of  three  dimensions  by  Archimedes 
(287-212  B.C.),  as  well  as  the  first  application  of  mathe- 
matics to  hydrostatics  by  the  same  scholar;  the  first 
scientific  treatise  on  conic  sections  by  ApoUonius  of  Perga 
(260-200  B.C.);  the  working  out  by  Eratosthenes  (275-194 
B.C.)  of  what  was  later  called  the  Julian  Calendar;  the 
determination  of  the  true  length  of  the  solar  year  (within 
six  minutes)  by  Hipparchus  (c.  160  B.C.),  after  whom  no 
real  advance  in  astronomy  was  made  until  the  time  of 
Copernicus,     some     sixteen     hundred    years    later;    the 

"  See  Kingsley,  op.  cil.;  and  Whittaker,  The  Neo-Platonists  (Cambridge, 
1901). 


I04  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

invention  of  trigonometry,  also  by  Hipparchus;  and  finaly, 
the  construction  of  the  fire-engine,  the  steam-engine,  the 
nickel-in-the-slot  machine,  and  many  curious  mechanical 
toys  by  Hero  (c.  125  b.c),  to  whom  have  also  been  ascribed 
writings  on  the  solution  of  the  quadratic  equation  and 
the  introduction  of  algebra/ 

As  Aristophanes  was  essentially  the  great  (f>L\6\o'yo<; 
among  the  Alexandrians,  so  Aristarchus  was  essentially 
the  great  KptriKO'i  of  all  antiquity.  Born  in  Samothrace, 
he  was  a  pupil  of  Aristophanes  at  Alexandria,  where  his 
stupendous  labours  as  a  critic  of  literature  made  his  name 
afterwards,  and  even  to  this  day,  proverbial.  It  is  with 
him  that  text  criticism  reached  its  highest  development 
until  recent  times. 

It  is  evident  that  the  literary  study  of  an  author,  pur- 
sued in  a  thorough  and  systematic  way,  will  soon  result 
in  questions  relating  to  the  integrity  of  the  text,  especially 
when  the  author  has  been  long  dead  and  when  there  exist 
variant  versions  from  which  one  has  to  choose.  It  has 
already  been  shown  that  something  had  been  done  pre- 
viously toward  the  criticism  of  the  Homeric  texts  and  also 
the  texts  of  the  great  dramatists.  This  work  was  now 
taken  up  at  Alexandria  in  a  spirit  of  scientific  inquiry  and 
with  ample  means  for  its  prosecution.     As  time  went  on, 

*  See  Berry,  A  Short  History  of  Astronomy  (London,  1899);  Ball, 
Great  Astronomers  (New  York,  1899);  Ball,  A  History  of  Mathematics 
(London,  1901);    Cajori,  A  History  of  Mathematics  (New  York,  1906); 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  IO5 

a  definite  School  of  Criticism  was  established.  The  first 
librarian,  Zenodotus  of  Ephesus,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  this  school.  The  fact  that  his  duties  were 
partly  those  of  a  cataloguer,  purchaser,  and  classifier  led 
him  to  look  with  especial  interest  upon  the  work  of  mak- 
ing collections,  so  that  one  finds  him  preparing  a  sort  of 
corpus  of  the  epic  and  lyric  poets  and  elaborating  the 
Homeric  glossary  of  Philetas  into  a  more  ambitious  work. 
He  also  put  forth  an  edition  which  may  be  called  the 
very  first  scientific  edition  of  both  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey. 
It  was  published  shortly  before  the  year  274  B.C.  Hence 
Zenodotus  is  called  hLopOcoTrj^,  and  his  work  the  StopdcoaLf;, 
or  Recension. 

In  preparing  the  text  of  Homer,  Zenodotus  introduced 
four  kinds  of  corrections:  (i)  Elimination,  the  complete 
omission  of  certain  lines  that  he  regarded  as  absolutely 
spurious;  (2)  Query,  the  marking  of  certain  lines  as  very 
doubtful,  though  still  not  so  doubtful  as  to  justify  their 
omission  altogether;  (3)  Transposition,  the  rearrangement 
of  the  order  of  certain  lines;  (4)  Emendation,  the  sub- 
Fink,  A  History  of  Mathematics  (Chicago,  1900);  Hankel,  Ziir  Geschichte 
der  Mathematik  im  Altcrthum  und  Miltelalter  (Leipzig,  1874);  and  the 
treatise  on  Hiero's  ingenious  mechanical  toys  with  drawings  to  illustrate 
them  in  Greenwood,  Pneumatics  (London,  185 1).  As  to  algebra,  this 
was  in  reality  an  invention  of  the  Egyptians.  The  first  treatise  on 
algebra  dates  back  to  the  year  1700  B.C.,  when  Ahmes,  an  Egyptian 
scribe,  copied  part  of  an  algebraic  work  written  eight  hundred  3'ears 
before  his  time.  The  book  of  Ahmes  has  been  edited  by  Eisenlohr 
(Leipzig,  1877). 


Io6  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

stitution  of  new  readings  for  the  old.*  As  was  natural  in 
a  lexicographer,  he  paid  great  attention  to  the  vocabulary 
of  Homer,  and  his  corrections  appear  to  have  been  made 
chiefly  upon  the  verbal  side.  His  proof  of  what  could  be 
done  by  a  minute  study  of  word  and  phrase  began  a  new 
era  of  philological  study,  and  one  in  which  language,  as 
distinct  from  style,  received  a  very  close  attention.  The 
processes  of  text  criticism  now  began  to  be  extended  to 
other  texts  than  those  of  Homer,  We  have  already 
mentioned  the  great  edition  of  the  tragic  poets  by  Alex- 
ander ^tolus,  and  the  edition  of  the  comic  poets  by 
Lycophron.  The  HtVa/ce?  of  Callimachus,  previously 
spoken  of,  were  really  more  than  a  catalogue  of  the  books 
in  the  Alexandrian  Library,  since  they  contained  critical 
observations  on  the  genuineness  of  each  volume,  an  indi- 
cation of  the  first  and  last  word  of  each,  and  a  note  regard- 
ing its  size.2  This  was  essentially  Bibliography  employed 
in  the  service  of  criticism. 

The  third  librarian,  Eratosthenes,  of  whose  scientific 
studies  something  has  been  already  said,  compiled  a 
treatise  on  the  Old  Comedy  in  not  less  than  twelve  books. 
In  it  he  seems  to  have  given  for  the  first  time,  not  only  a  f 

complete  and  critical  treatment  of  the  language  and  sub- 
ject of  the  comedies,  but  also  an  exhaustive  series  of 
excursus  on  such  themes  as  were  of  collateral  interest  and 

'  Examples  of  his  corrections  may  be  found  in  H.  F.  Clinton's  Fasti 
Eellenici,  iii.  pp.  491  foil.  (Oxford,  1824-1834). 

*See  Egger,  Callimaque  el  I'Origitie  de  la  Bibliographie  (Paris,  no  date). 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  107 

importance,  —  e.g.  the  structure  of  theatres,  the  scenic 
apparatus,  the  actors,  the  costumes,  the  different  kinds 
of  elocution,  and,  in  fact,  everything  pertaining  to  the 
general  subject/ 

His  successor,  Aristophanes  of  Byzantium,  availed  him- 
self fully  of  the  material  which  was  now  at  hand.  The 
Alexandrian  Library  had  already  existed  for  an  entire  cen- 
tury, and  it  had  been  thoroughly  sifted,  arranged,  and 
classified,  so  that  there  was  needed  only  a  great  mind  to 
put  it  to  the  best  possible  use.  Much  had  already  been 
done  toward  the  establishment  of  some  principles  of 
criticism;  but  the  results  of  previous  successes  and  failures 
were  now  to  be  utilised  to  the  full,  and  in  a  broad  and 
liberal  spirit.  The  whole  sphere  of  Greek  literature  be- 
came a  field  for  the  labours  of  Aristophanes;  and  in 
taking  upon  himself  so  heavy  a  task,  he  set  to  work  in  a 
spirit  of  catholicity.  His  criticism  was  not  wholly  verbal, 
nor  was  it  even  wholly  diplomatic,  —  that  is,  criticism 
based  upon  the  comparison  of  manuscripts.  It  was  both 
of  these,  and  it  was  inspired  and  tempered  by  the  senti- 
ment critique.  His  a-rj/xela  were  of  various  sorts.  Ten  of 
them  were  known  as  the  BeKa  TrpocrwBiai,,  or  ten  markings 
of  Aristophanes.  These  were  the  two  breathings,  the  three 
accents,^  the  two  quantity  marks  (the  long  and  the  short), 

'  The  fragments  of  his  writings  will  be  found  in  Berhardy,  Eratos- 
thenica  (Berlin,  1822). 

^  Breathings  and  accents,  however,  were  not  regularly  written  in 
Greek  manuscripts  earlier  than  the  seventh  century  a.d. 


I08  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  mark  of  separation  inserted  between  words  where  the 
point  of  separation  might  not  be  obvious,  the  hyphen  (a 
curved  Hne  drawn  under  the  letters  to  show  the  connection, 
as  in  compound  words),  and  finally,  the  apostrophe  used 
either  to  mark  elision  or  the  end  of  a  foreign  name.  It 
was  regularly  written  after  a  word  ending  in  «,  x*  I.  '*/^.  or 
p.  When  a  double  consonant  was  found  in  the  middle 
of  a  word,  an  apostrophe  was  placed  above  the  first  or 
between  the  two  letters. 

Besides  these,  Aristophanes  also  made  use  of  the  full 
point  or  period,  whose  value  depended  upon  its  position. 
The  high  point  was  a  full  stop.  The  point  on  the  line 
was  a  semicolon.  The  point  in  a  middle  position  was  a 
comma.  The  last  disappeared  from  use  in  the  ninth 
century  a.d.,  when  it  was  replaced  by  the  mark  which  we 
now  call  a  comma. 

Aristophanes  also  edited  critically  a  great  number  of 
texts.  He  prepared  a  supplement  to  the  catalogue  of 
Callimachus;  he  helped  compose  the  Canon  already 
given;  he  wrote  a  treatise  on  metres,  and  also  the  first 
scientific  work  on  lexicography,  of  which  about  one  hun- 
dred fragments  are  still  preserved.^ 

We  need  not  dwell  in  detail  upon  the  critical  methods 
of  Aristophanes,  since  they  can  be  much  better  seen  in 
the  work  of  his  remarkable  pupil  and  associate,  Aristar- 

'  The  fragments  of  Aristophanes  are  edited  by  Nauck,  Aristophanis 
Byzanlii  Fragmenta  (Halle,  1848). 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  IO9 

chus  of  Samothrace  (c.  217-145  b.c).  He  is  the  best 
type  of  the  Alexandrian  critic,  since  he  confined  himself 
to  the  single  field  of  criticism  and  did  not  seek  to  be  known 
as  a  polymath.  He  first  completed  the  general  terminol- 
ogy of  formal  grammar,  setting  forth  the  eight  parts  of 
speech  —  noun,  verb,  pronoun,  adverb,  participle,  article, 
conjunction,  and  preposition/ 

Aristarchus  finally  determined  the  fixed  critical  prin- 
ciples that  were  to  be  applied  in  establishing  the  correct 
text  of  an  author.  These  principles  he  employed  in 
editions  of  Archilochus,  Alceeus,  iEschylus,  Sophocles, 
Aristophanes,  Hesiod,  Pindar,  and  especially  the  Homeric 
poems,  of  which  he  published  two  great  editions,  writing 
notes  on  special  points  together  with  commentaries.  It 
is  in  the  editions  (e/cSoVei?)  that  one  can  best  judge  of 
his  ability  as  a  critic,  since  in  them  the  difficulties  v/ere 
far  the  greatest  because  of  the  long  lapse  of  time,  because 
of  the  large  number  of  manuscripts,  and  because  of  the 
variations  due  to  the  preceding  recensions.  There  were 
political  interests  involved  in  many  of  the  changes  made 
in  the  Homeric  text,  precisely  as  some  earnest  theologian 
must  have  made  the  famous  interpolation  in  the  New 
Testament  to  establish  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  (i  John, 

'  The  Interjection  was  not  recognised  by  the  Greeks  as  a  part  of 
speech.  It  came  into  formal  grammar  with  the  Roman  teachers  (Quint. 
i.  parts  4.  20).  The  Alexandrians  claimed  that  Homer  recognised  the 
eight  parts  of  speech,  and  they  cited  two  passages  of  the  Iliad  (i.  185  and 
xxii.  59)  each  of  which  contains  them  all. 


no  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

V,  7).^  It  was  probably  because  of  his  knowledge  of  these 
interpolations  and  of  the  reasons  for  them,  that  Aristar- 
chus  approached  the  work  of  recension  in  a  sceptical 
spirit  like  that  of  F.  A.  Wolf  in  later  times.  His  main 
purpose  was  to  rid  the  text  of  the  additions  and  corrup- 
tions of  the  three  preceding  centuries.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  the  details  of  his  system,  which  can  best  be  seen 
by  taking  up  some  of  the  concrete  examples  preserved  for 
us  in  the  Venetian  scholia. 

The  examination  of  an  author  by  Aristarchus  involved 
five  processes:  (i)  the  arrangement  of  the  text;  (2)  the 
determination  of  the  accents;  (3)  the  determination  of 
forms;  (4)  an  explanation  of  the  words,  allusions,  etc.; 
and  (5)  Kpiai<i,  or  criticism  proper,  including  all  questions 
of  authenticity  and  the  final  judgment  that  is  to  be  passed 
upon  the  author  and  his  work  as  a  whole. 

In  carrying  out  his  work  as  a  text  critic,  Aristarchus 
employs  all  the  sources  of  information  used  by  his  pred- 
ecessors, but  always  in  a  spirit  far  more  scientific  than 
theirs  had  been.  Thus,  like  Zenodotus,  he  studies  the 
Homeric  use  of  words,  holding  with  him  that  a  knowledge 
of  the  substance  must  be  based  upon  a  knowledge  of  the 
language.  Yet  he  does  not  confine  himself  to  the  archaic, 
rare,  or  foreign  words.     He,  as  an  "analogist,"  ^  considers 

•  See  Lehrs,  Z)c  Aristarchi  Shidiis  Homericis  (Konigsberg,  1833;  3d 
ed.  1882);  Ludwich,  Arislarchs  Homerische  Textkrilik  (Leipzig,  1884- 
1885);   Jebb,  Homer,  pp.  91-98  (Glasgow,  1887). 

*  Infra,  pp.  1 19-120. 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  III 

these  as  being  less  important,  from  the  very  fact  of  their 
rarity,  than  the  words  and  phrases  that  lend  colour  and 
individuality  to  the  work  as  a  whole  and  which,  since  they 
are  familiar,  give  a  clue  to  the  Homeric  sense.  So,  for  ex- 
ample, Aristarchus  remarks  that  in  Homer,  S)8e  always 
has  the  meaning  "  thus  "  and  never  "  here  "  or  "  thither  "; 
that  fidWeiv  refers  always  to  the  hurling  of  missiles, 
while  ovrd^eiv  is  used  of  striking  or  wounding  at  close 
quarters  ;  that  0o/3o9  has  the  sense  of  "  flight";  that  ttoVo? 
is  employed  especially  in  reference  to  combat;  that 
'OXu/iTTo?  in  the  Iliad  means  the  actual  mountain,  and 
so  on.  This  careful  study  gave  him  a  standard  of  usage 
when  called  upon  to  decide  between  two  conflicting  read- 
ings in  two  manuscripts  of  equal  value;  for  in  such  a 
case  he  gave  the  preference  to  the  reading  that  was  the 
more  consistent  with  the  general  usage  of  the  poet  (to 
eOtfjiov  Tov  irot-qrov). 

Again,  in  establishing  his  text,  he  ascribed  great  weight 
to  manuscript  authority,  just  as  Zcnodotus  and  Aris- 
tophanes had  done  before  him;  but  Aristarchus  exhibits 
an  acuteness  and  system  in  his  classification  of  the  manu- 
scripts not  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  his  predeces- 
sors. He  seems  to  have  grouped  them  generally  in 
"  families,"  and  to  have  determined  both  by  compari- 
son and  by  the  internal  evidence  of  a  codex  its  value  in 
the  establishment  of  a  canon.  Thus  we  find  "  private 
editions,"  the  work  of  individual  editors;    "city  editions," 


112  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

made  under  State  supervision;  ^  and  "  popular  editions," 
among  which  he  distinguishes  those  that  are  more  inaccu- 
rate and  those  which  are  fairly  accurate. 

That  Aristarchus  made  no  such  minute  divisions  and 
subdivisions  of  manuscripts  in  their  "  families "  and 
"  groups  "  as  are  found  in  the  work  of  modern  critics  in 
texts  like  that  of  Horace,  for  example,  is  due  to  the  impor- 
tant fact  that  in  his  time  the  variants  in  Homer  were 
variants  of  words  and  particular  verses;  while  the  limits 
of  divergence  being  very  narrow,  the  omissions  and  addi- 
tions were  of  a  comparatively  unimportant  kind.  This 
implies  a  common  basis  of  tradition,  embodied  in  a  vulgate 
text,  possibly  that  of  the  Pisistratidean  recension.  The 
better  judgment  of  Aristarchus,  as  contrasted  with  Zenod- 
otus,  is  seen  in  his  treatment  of  the  so-called  formulaic 
lines.  This  repetition,  line  for  line,  was  too  much  for 
Zenodotus,  who  rejected  the  frequent  appearance  of  it, 
for  instance,  in  the  Iliad,  where  the  "  baneful  dream  "  of 
Zeus  to  x'\gamemnon  occurs  three  times  in  the  second 
book.  Aristarchus,  however,  rightly  saw  in  this  the 
naif  redundacy  of  the  primitive  story-teller,  and  so  he  let 
it  stand.  On  the  whole,  though  Aristarchus  was  sceptical, 
he  was  very  much  averse  to  altering  his  text;  and  for  this 
conservatism  he  has  been  censured  in  modern  times,  for 
instance,  by  Wolf  and  Lehrs.  Aristarchus  questioned  and 
doubted,  but  he  did  not  often  introduce  an  emendation. 

'  See  p.  15. 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  II3 

In  his  critical  work  he  employed  various  signs  (a-rjfiela). 
'  The  most  important  of  these  were 

(i)  The  6,8e\6<;  or  spit,  -,  to  indicate  that  a  line  was 
spurious.  Such  lines  were  said  to  be  "  athetised  "  (aderelv). 
This  obelus  is  still  used  in  critical  texts  by  German  scholars. 

(2)  The  SlttXj],  ^,  or  >  <1  ,  or  S,  used  either  for 
exposition,  to  call  attention  to  some  especial  point,  or  to 
mark  a  word  which  is  used  only  once,  or  to  indicate  that 
the  construction  is  the  same  as  in  Attic  Greek. 

(3)  The  dotted  diple,  ^,  to  denote  that  the  reading 
adopted  by  Aristarchus  differed  from  that  of  Zenodotus. 

(4)  The  asterisk,  *,  to  mark  a  genuine  formulaic  verse 
as  distinct  from  one  regarded  by  him  as  spurious.  If  the 
repeated  verse  was  spurious,  it  was  marked  in  one  of  the 
two  places  where  it  occurred,  with  the  asterisk  or  the 
obelus  prefixed  to  the  line. 

(5)  The  antisigma,  D,  and  the  stigma,  r,  were  used 
together  to  denote  repetitions  of  the  same  idea.^  The 
stigma,  alone,  denoted  only  suspected  spuriousness.  It  is 
interesting  to  know  that  out  of  the  15,600  lines  of  the 
Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  11 60  were  athetised. 

The  criticisms  of  Aristarchus  were  not,  apparently, 
embodied  in  any  one  great  standard  work,  but  w^re  spread 

'  For  instance,  Iliad,  viii.  535-537,  was  marked,  and  so  was  passage 
538-541,  because  the  last-named  verses  seemed  to  repeat  the  sense 
of  the  former.  For  the  best  account  of  these  critical  signs  see  Gardt- 
hausen,  Pdaographie,  p.  2S8  foil.  (Leipzig,  1899)  and  Susemihl,  op.  cit. 
ip.  432  foil. 
I 


114  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 

over  a  great  quantity  of  monographs,  marking  each  the 
development  of  a  new  hne  of  research  or  the  statement 
of  a  new  principle.  Hence  it  is  that  his  critical  work 
never  was  canonised  in  one  single  standard  text.  Hence, 
also,  it  is  so  difficult  to  distinguish  what  is  the  work  of 
Aristarchus  himself  from  that  which  belonged  to  the 
Aristarchean  School,  —  to  the  great  number  of  students 
and  scholars  who  carried  out  his  ideas.  This  difficulty, 
in  fact,  was  felt  even  in  ancient  times,  as  in  the  Augustan 
Age;  and  we  find  Didymus  Chalcenteros  trying  to  ascer- 
tain what  readings  of  Homer  were  approved  by  Aristarchus 
—  and  this  only  about  a  century  after  his  death. 

The  imperfect  knowledge  that  we  have  of  the  critical 
work  of  Aristarchus  as  a  whole  is  due  to  the  roundabout 
way  in  which  notices  of  it  have  come  down  to  us.  Didy- 
mus, just  mentioned,  collected  the  Homeric  writings  of 
Aristarchus.  Aristonicus  of  Alexandria,  a  contemporary 
of  Didymus,  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  critical  signs  employed 
by  Aristarchus  in  his  text  work;  and  in  connection  with 
this  matter,  incidentally  quoted  the  arguments  relating 
to  the  verses  marked  with  these  signs.  About  the  year 
B.C.  1 60,  Herodianus  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  accentuation 
and  prosody  of  the  Homeric  poems.  Nicanor  about  the 
same  time  improved  a  work  on  Homeric  punctuation. 
Now  between  the  years  200  and  250  a.d.  some  unknown 
scholar  made  an  epitome  of  these  four  writers  —  Didymus, 
Aristonicus,  Herodianus,  and  Nicanor  —  in  such  a  way 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  II5 

as  to  form  a  continuous  critical  commentary  on  the  Homeric 
text.  The  Epitome  of  the  Four  Treatises  (usually  spoken 
of  simply  as  "  the  Epitome,"  and  in  Germany  as  the 
Viermanner  Schoiien)/  was  in  the  tenth  century  a.d. 
copied  into  the  margin  of  a  codex  of  the  Iliad.  This 
Codex  is  the  very  famous  Codex  Venetus  A  of  the  Iliad, 
No.  454,  in  the  Library  of  St.  Mark  in  Venice.  It  con- 
tains (i)  the  Epitome,  undoubtedly  somewhat  altered 
from  its  original  form,  as  the  language,  etc.,  shows;  and 
(2)  other  scholia.  This  MS.  is  almost  the  only  source 
from  which  we  can  get  any  definite  knowledge  in  detail 
of  the  views  of  Aristarchus.  It  is  also  the  only  MS.  pre- 
served in  which  the  critical  signs  of  Aristarchus  are  em- 
ployed. The  scholia  of  this  Codex  were  first  edited  by 
Villoison  in  1788.^ 

Text  criticism  in  antiquity  reached  its  highest  point  with 
Aristarchus.  His  followers  were  often  men  of  great 
ability  and  indefatigable  industry,  but  their  attention  seems 
to  have  been  directed  more  minutely  to  verbal,  i.e.  gram- 
matical criticism,  and  to  have  become  narrower  and  more 
pedantic  as  time  went  on.  The  Alexandian  School  was, 
in  fact,  essentially  a  school  of  grammatical  scholarship, 
accurate,  careful,  and  deeply  learned,  but  with  perhaps 
too  great  a  fondness  for  regularity,  for  strict  rules,  and  a 
sort  of  Procrustean  willingness  to  secure  absolute  uniform- 
ity in  language  and  in  its  laws  by  crushing  out  that  idio- 

'  See  Hiibner's  Encyclopddie,  pp.  37-40  in  the  second  ed.  (Berlin,  1892). 


Il6  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

matic  freedom  of  both  form  and  expression  which  is  the 
essential  attribute  of  a  living  language. 

After  Aristarchus,  who  died  about  143  B.C.,  critical 
studies  were  continued  at  Alexandria  by  his  successors, 
among  whom  may  be  noted  Hermippus  of  Smyrna,  a 
writer  of  biographies,  much  drawn  upon  by  Plutarch; 
Apollodorus  of  Athens,  who  wrote  in  trimeters,  a  work  on 
chronology  from  the  fall  of  Troy  to  1444  B.C.,  and  a  com- 
mentary on  the  Homeric  catalogue  of  the  ships.  He  like- 
wise composed  a  treatise  On  the  Gods  in  twenty-four  books 
which  was  a  treasury  of  minute  and  curious  information 
''  freely  and  extensively  pirated  by  later  writers."  The 
successor  of  Aristarchus  was  Ammonius,  who  had  been 
his  pupil;  and  after  him  came  Didymus  Chalcenteros 
of  Alexandria  (c.  65  B.C.  -  c.  10  a.d.),  who  is  said 
to  have  written  nearly  four  thousand  books,  lexicograph- 
ical, critical,  grammatical,  exegetical,  and  archaeological.^ 
About  the  year  75  B.C.  there  appeared  anonymously  a 
great  manual  of  mythology  —  the  first  of  its  kind  —  from 
which  many  of  the  later  writers  drew  extensively.  One 
should  also  speak  of  the  grammarian  Tryphon,  and  the  com- 
mentator Theon  who  lived  in  the  first  century  a.d.  The 
Alexandrian  School  grew  less  and  less  important  after  the 
middle  of  the  first  century  B.C.  A  good  part  of  the  Library 
was  destroyed  during  the  siege  of  Alexandria  by    Julius 

'  See  Blau,  De  Aristarchi  Discipulis  (Jena,  1883);  and  the  edition  of 
the  fragments  of  Didymus  by  Moritz  Schmidt  (Leipzig,  1854). 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  II7 

Caesar  (47  B.C.).  Later,  when  Theodosius  the  Great  gave 
his  consent  to  the  destruction  of  all  the  pagan  temples  in 
the  Roman  Empire  (389  a.d.),  a  mob  of  fanatical  Chris- 
tians demolished  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis,  and  with  it 
a  large  portion  of  the  Library.  From  this  time,  Alexandria, 
as  a  centre  of  learning,  ceased  to  exist;  and  when  the 
Arabs  in  641  took  the  city,  they  merely  completed  a  work 
of  devastation  that  had  been  going  on  for  centuries. 

[Bibliography.  —  See,  in  addition  to  the  works  already  cited, 
Susemihl,  Geschichte  der  griechischen  Litteratur  in  der  Alexan- 
drinerzeit,  2  vols.  (Leipzig,  1S91-1892);  Bernhardy,  Geschichte 
der  griechischen  Litteratur,  5th  ed.  (Halle,  1877-1892);  Renan, 
Melange  d'Histoire  et  de  Voyages  dans  FAntiquite,  pp.  389-410, 
427-440  (Paris,  1898);  and  the  special  biographical  articles  in 
Pauly's  Real-Encyclopddie  (Stuttgart,  1893  foil.);  also  Mahaffy, 
History  of  Classical  Greek  Literature,  vol.  i.  pp.  35  foil,  and  vol.  ii. 
pp.  427-438  (New  York,  1880).  ] 


B.   The  Pergamene  School  and  Other  Centres 

OF  Learning 

The  School  at  Alexandria  had  for  a  long  time  attracted 
those  who  were  at  once  men  of  genius  and  of  profound 
learning.  After  the  death  of  Aristarchus,  -however,  it 
tended  to  become  more  and  more  a  gathering-place  for 
near-sighted  critics  to  whom  formulas  were  more  important 
than  facts.  To  them  a  rule  of  grammar  or  a  paradigm 
was  sacred,  and  their  reverence  for  symmetry  in  language 
was  carried  so  far  as  to  provoke  an  inevitable  opposition, 


Il8  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 

which  was  organised  at  last  in  the  famous  School  at  Per- 
gamiim,  which  arose  to  meet  and  assail  the  theories  of  the 
Alexandrians.  Pergamum  was  an  ancient  town,  about  fif- 
teen miles  from  the  coast  of  Mysia  in  Asia  Minor/  It  was 
ruled  by  a  dynasty  founded  in  the  Alexandrian  Age;  and 
in  263  B.C.  Eimienes  I  became  a  patron  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  inviting  philosophers  and  sculptors  to  his  court, 
among  them  being  Arcesilaus,  who  had  first  presided  over 
the  Middle  Academy  at  Athens,  and  the  Peripatetic  phi- 
losopher Lycon.  The  successor  of  Eumenes  was  Attalus 
I,  who  assumed  the  title  of  king,  won  victories  over  the 
invading  Gauls,  and  then  began  to  gather  the  books  for  the 
Pergamene  Library  that  was  to  rival  the  collection  at  Alex- 
andria. He  laid  out  grounds  for  an  academy  like  that  in 
Athens,  and  sought  the  friendship  of  philosophers,  histo- 
rians, and  mathematicians.^  The  king  himself  conde- 
scended to  authorship,  though  his  taste  was  more  for 
sculpture.  His  victories  over  the  Gauls  were  commemo- 
rated in  a  set  of  magnificent  bronzes.  A  copy  of  one  of 
these  in  marble  is  the  famous  figure  known  as  "the  Dying 
Gladiator,"  but  more  properly  "  the  Dying  Gaul,"  and 
now  preserved  in  the  Capitoline  Museum  at  Rome.  Of 
the  artists  whom  he  patronised,  one  recalls  especially 
Antigonus  of   Carystos,   who  wrote  on  art  and  likewise 

'  The  name  for  parchment  (pergamena)  is  derived  from  Pergamum, 
where  it  was  first  made. 

^  It  was  to  King  Attalus  that  Apollonius  of  Perga  dedicated  his  work 
on  Conic  Sections. 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN    PERIOD  I19 

on  natural  phenomena.  Pergamum  was  adorned  with 
splendid  buildings,  above  which  rose  the  Acropolis,  a 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea  level,  and  protecting,  as  it 
were,  the  court  of  the  goddess  Athena,  a  vast  quadrangle 
bounded  by  colonnades  and  adorned  by  majestic  statues 
of  Homer,  Herodotus,  Alcaeus,  and  other  great  writers  of 
the  past.  These  and  similar  works  were  carried  out  by 
the  kings  of  Pergamum  until  in  133  B.C.  Attalus  III 
bequeathed  his  entire  realm  to  the  Roman  people. 

The  scholars  of  Pergamum  were,  on  the  whole,  more 
varied  in  their  interest  than  those  of  Alexandria.  The 
Stoics  controlled  the  teachings,  and  the  real  founder 
was  Crates  of  Mallos  (c.  i68  B.C.),  who  became  to  the  Per- 
gamene  School  what  Aristarchus  was  to  the  Alexandrian. 
Aristarchus  reverenced  rule  in  language,  while  Crates  based 
his  teachings  upon  exception;  and  the  catchwords  which 
represented  the  distinction  were  avaXo'yia  and  apcofjuaXia} 
Crates  and  his  followers  regarded  the  mere  verbalists  of 
Alexandria  with  a  species  of  contempt.  He  held  that 
text  criticism,  and  especially  the  text  criticism  of  Homer, 

*  Crates  derived  the  expression  dvufiaXla  from  the  treatise  of  Chrysip- 
pus,  On  Anomaly.  The  fragments  of  Crates  with  a  commentary  on 
them  will  be  found  in  Wachsmuth,  De  Cratete  Mallota  (Leipzig,  i860); 
and  on  the  Pergamene  School  see  Wegener,  De  Aula  AUalica  (Copen- 
hagen, 1836).  For  some  discussion  on  Analogy  and  ^Vnomaly,  see 
Aulus  Gellius,  ii.  5,  where  reference  is  directly  made  to  Aristarchus  and 
Crates.  "  ' A  f  w X o 7 i a  est  similium  similis  declinatio;  . .  .dvw fj.a\  la  est 
inaqualitas  declinalionum  consuetudinem  sequens."  On  Analogy  and 
Anomaly,  see  also  Sandys,  op.  cit.  i.  pp.  156-158. 


I20  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

ought  to  embrace  the  whole  mass  of  problems  —  historical, 
physical,  mythological,  and  philosophical  —  suggested  in 
the  Homeric  poems.  He  saw  in  the  text,  allegories  and 
allusions  to  the  cosmical  and  astronomical  theories  of  the 
Stoics.  In  fact,  he  regarded  Homer  more  as  a  teacher 
than  as  a  poet,  placing  his  hLhaaKoKia  before  h.xs-^^v^a'yoi'yCa. 
The  importance  of  this  view  of  Crates  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  because  of  his  desire  to  read  into  the  text  the  alle- 
gories which  he  saw  there,  he  was  led  to  propose  a  large 
number  of  conjectural  emendations  in  which  the  principle 
of  anomaly  gave  full  play  to  his  ingenious  mind.  Thus, 
while  Aristarchus  represents  cautious  diplomatic  examina- 
tion of  the  text  and  a  reluctance  to  alter  what  he  finds  in  it, 
Crates  is  the  type  of  the  brilliant  conjectural  emendator, 
the  Bentley  of  antiquity.  Only  fragments  have  come 
down  to  us  of  his  writings;  but  they  include  a  commen- 
tary on  the  Homeric  epics,  on  Hesiod,  Euripides,  and 
Aristophanes;  a  catalogue  of  the  Pergamene  Library  like 
that  which  Callimachus  made  of  the  Library  of  Alexandria; 
and  a  work  on  the  Attic  dialect  in  at  least  five  books.  It 
may  be  noted,  en  passant,  that  Crates  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  study  of  grammar  at  Rome,  to  which  city  he  was 
sent  as  an  ambassador  in  157  b.c.^  His  most  important 
successor  was  Demetrius  Magnes,  who  flourished  in  the 
first  century  B.C.  and  who  wrote  on  synonyms  together 
with  some  biographies. 

*See  infra,  p.  157. 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  121 

It  might  well  be  assumed  that  Athens  should  have  been 
the  seat  of  a  great  institution  of  learning;  and  such  was 
indeed  the  case.  So  far  back  as  the  time  of  Pericles, 
it  had  been  called  "the  school  of  Greece,"  and  even 
in  its  decadence  it  long  kept  the  fire  of  learning  bright. 
Both  before  and  immediately  after  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  Era,  it  contained  an  organised  faculty  of  accom- 
plished professors  who  lectured  to  students  from  all  parts 
of  the  civilised  world.  The  University  at  Athens  was  the 
result  of  two  previously  existing  institutions  —  the  organ- 
isation of  the  €(})i]pot,  and  the  schools  of  the  philcKophers 
and  Sophists.  The  Ephebi,  or  free  Athenian  youths,  were 
in  early  times  enrolled  into  a  corps  that  was  primarily 
intended  for  the  defense  of  the  State.  They  were  educated 
both  physically  and  mentally,  and  they  formed  the  nucleus 
of  what  became  the  student  body  of  the  university. 
Two  changes  in  the  constitution  of  this  body  prepared  the 
way  for  its  transformation  from  a  quasi-military  organisa- 
tion to  a  university.     These  changes  were:  — 

(i)  The  neglect  of  the  principle  of  compulsion.  Not 
all  were  enrolled,  but  only  those  who  chose. 

(2)  Membership  was  no  longer  confined  to  Athenians 
or  even  Greeks. 

These  changes  left  a  body  of  young  men,  organised  and 
regularly  enrolled,  free  to  follow  such  a  course  of  training 
as  best  suited  their  inclinations  and  capacities,  and  ready 
to  be  turned  to  any  line  of  study  that  had  the  advocacy 


122  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

of  brilliant,  energetic,  and  popular  men.  The  schools  of 
the  philosophers  supplied  the  influence  necessary  for 
completing  the  change  from  a  militar}'  college  to  a  great 
university. 

Four  schools  of  philosophy  had  since  the  time  of  the 
Macedonian  wars  been  flourishing  at  Athens.  These 
were  the  Academic  or  Platonic  School,  the  Peripatetic 
or  Aristotelian  School,  the  Stoic  School,  and  the  Epicurean, 
Each  of  these  schools  from  the  time  of  its  foundation  had 
received  an  endo^^inent  sufficient  to  maintain  and  per- 
petuate it.  Plato  had  purchased  a  small  garden  near  the 
Eleusinian  Way,  in  the  grove  of  Academe,  for  three  thou- 
sand drachmas.  His  philosophic  successors,  Xenocrates 
and  Polemon.  continued  to  teach  in  the  same  spot;  their 
wealthy  pupils  and  the  friends  of  learning  added  to  the 
grounds  and  bequeathed  sufficient  funds  for  the  support 
of  the  philosopher,  and  thus  practically  endowed  an  aca- 
demic chair.  In  like  manner,  Aristotle  left  to  his  successor, 
Theophrastus,  the  valuable  property  near  the  Ilyssus; 
and  Theophrastus,  in  the  will  whose  text  has  come  do\\'n  to 
us  in  Diogenes  Laertius,^  completed  the  permanent  endow- 
ment of  the  Peripatetic  chair.  So  Epicurus  left  his  prop- 
erty in  the  Ceramicus  to  be  the  nucleus  of  an  endowment 
for  his  school,"  and  the  Stoics  were  probably  in  like  manner 
made   independent.     Around   these  four  schools  of    phi- 

*  V.  2.  14. 

^  Diog.  Laert.  xx.  10. 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN  PERIOD  1 23 

losophy,  which,  being  endowed,  taught  gratuitously,  a 
multitude  of  teachers  of  rhetoric,  grammar,  literature, 
logic,  physics,  and  mathematics  clustered.  The  world 
soon  learned  to  think  of  Athens  as  a  great  seat  of  learning 
and  culture,  brilliant  and  renowned.  Students  flocked  to 
her  from  every  quarter  and  country.  It  appears  to  have 
been  necessary  to  become  enrolled  among  the  Ephebi, 
but  the  scholars  selected  for  themselves  their  own  instruc- 
tors, and  attended  such  lectures  as  they  chose.  The 
number  of  these  students  became  enormous.  Theophras- 
tus  alone  lectured  to  as  many  as  two  thousand  men.  The 
records  show  the  names  of  many  foreign  students,  some  of 
them  being  of  the  Semitic  race.  From  later  sources  we 
learn  that  matriculation  took  place  early  in  the  year;  that 
the  students  wore  a  gown  like  that  of  the  undergraduates 
at  the  English  universities;  that  they  pursued  athletic  sports 
with  much  ardour;  that  at  the  theatre  a  special  gallery 
was  reserved  for  them;  that  certificates  of  attendance  at 
the  courses  of  lectures  were  required ;  that  they  were  under 
the  general  direction  of  a  president;  that  fees  were  exacted 
in  the  shape  of  an  annual  contribution  to  the  university 
Library;  that  breaches  of  discipline  were  punished,  as 
at  Oxford,  by  fines;  that  the  relation  between  student  and 
professor  was  very  close,  so  that  for  a  student  to  cease  to 
take  a  course  was  very  cutting;  and  that  the  students 
themselves  "  touted  "  for  the  professors.  "  ISIost  of  the 
young  enthusiasts  for  learning,"  says  Gregory  Nazianzen, 


124  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

"  became  mere  partisans  of  their  professors.  They  are 
all  anxiety  to  get  their  audiences  larger  and  their  fees 
increased.  This  they  carry  to  portentous  lengths.  They 
post  themselves  over  the  city  at  the  beginning  of  the  year; 
as  each  newcomer  disembarks  he  falls  into  their  hands; 
they  carry  him  off  at  once  to  the  house  of  some  countryman 
or  friend  who  is  best  at  trumpeting  the  praises  of  his  own 
professor." 

Private  tutors  ((pvXa/ce'?)  were  often  employed.  They 
looked  over  the  students'  notes,  "coached"  them  on  the 
subjects  in  which  they  were  most  interested,  and  helped 
them  at  their  exercises.  At  the  end  of  the  year  there 
seems  to  have  been  an  examination. 

Freshmen  seem  to  have  been  subject  to  a  sort  of  hazing. 
Gregory,  in  a  funeral  address  over  his  friend  Basil,  recalls 
some  of  the  memories  of  their  sport  with  freshmen.  We 
find  one  of  the  professors,  Proaeresius,  asking  his  class 
not  to  haze  a  new  student,  Eunaphius,  because  of  his 
feeble  health.  Sometimes  the  inferior  officers  of  the 
university  were  subject  to  similar  annoyances,  and  Liba- 
nius  tells  of  one  of  the  tutors  who  was  tossed  in  a  blanket. 

There  were  likewise  other  famous  schools  given  over  to 
the  higher  education  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  -^s- 
chines,  the  great  rival  of  Demosthenes,  is  said  to  have 
founded  a  school  for  oratory  in  the  island  of  Rhodes,  and 
there  were  famous  teachers  in  Lesbos.  Tarsus,  in  Asia 
Minor,    had    faculties    representing    all  the  branches  of 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  125 

humanistic  studies.  In  like  manner,  Massilia  (Marseilles) 
rivalled  even  Athens  and  drew  students  away  from  it. 
The  further  development  of  endowed  education  will  be 
spoken  of  as  belonging  more  particularly  to  the  Grgeco- 
Roman  Period.^ 

After  the  time  of  Didymus  Chalcenteros,  already  noted, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  text  criticism  among  the 
Greeks  that  needs  especial  mention.  As  men  of  genius 
became  rarer,  formal  grammar,  lexicography,  and  the 
epitomising  of  earlier  writings  occupied  the  time  of  those 
whose  minds  were  satisfied  with  the  purely  mechanical 
phases  of  scholarship.  To  this  later  age  we  owe  the  great 
collections  of  Scholia  that  have  come  down  to  us  from 
the  codices  of  classical  authors  and  that  are  important 
(i)  because  of  their  value  in  determining  the  true  reading  of 
the  classical  texts;  and  (2)  because  in  many  cases,  by 
reason  of  the  blunders  of  subsequent  scribes,  they  have 
sometimes  slipped  into  the  text  itself,  there  to  become  a 
source  of  learned  controversy.  A  note  on  the  ancient 
glosses  may  be  of  some  value  for  reference  in  speaking  of 
text  criticism  hereafter.  This  will  necessarily  anticipate 
a  portion  of  the  narrative;  but  it  is  best  considered  in 
this  place. 

'  See  Capes,  University  Life  in  Ancient  Athens  (London,  1877);  Ma- 
haff}'-,  Old  Greek  Education  (London,  1882);  Eckstein,  Lateinischer 
und  Griechischer  Unterricht  (Leipzig,  1887) ;  Wilkins,  National  Education 
in  Greece  in  the  Fourth  Century  before  Christ  (London,  1873);  and  the 
first  five  chapters  in  Walden,  T}ie  Universities  of  Ancient  Greece  (New 
York,  1909). 


126  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

A  gloss  (yXaaaa)  was,  in  the  language  of  the  Greek  critics 

and  grammarians,  the  name  given  to  a  word  in  the  text 

that    required    explanation,    e.g.    Kopea(n(f)opT]Tou<i  in   II. 

viii.  527.     In  course  of  time,  ordinary  words  may  become 

obsolete  or  may  acquire  a  new  shade  of  meaning,  or  may 

be  employed  in  a  technical  and  peculiar  sense.     As  these 

words  would  require  a  special  explanation  for  the  benefit 

of  the  general  reader,  the  name  yXaxra-a  was  given  to  all 

such.     Thus,  Plutarch  speaks  of  the  words  which  belong 

to  the  purely  poetical  language,  and  those  that  are  purely 

local,  as  jXcoTTai  (DeAudiendis  Poetis,  §  6).    Galen  applies 

the  term  to  the  obsolete  medical  expressions  of  Hipparchus. 

Aristotle    uses    it    of    provincialisms    {Poet.    21.    4-6).* 

Quintilian    employs   the  synonymous  term   jXcoa-cr^iJiaTa 

to  voces  minus  itsitatas  (i.  8.  15;   cf.  i.  1.  35).     Originally 

the   word  that   needed   explanation   was   simply   defined 

by  wTiting  its  simpler  synonym,  the  word  in  common   use 

(ovofxa  Kvpiov,  Arist.),  in  the  margin  of  the  text  beside  it. 

Then  the  term  jXcba-a-a  meant  the  pair  of  words,  i.e.  the 

word  in  the  text  and  its  explanatory  word  in  the  margin, 

the  two  being  viewed  as  constituting  a  whole.     Ultimately 

the  explanation   alone  was  called   yXcoaa-a.     With    these 

glosses  begins  the  history  of  lexicography ;  but  the  glosses 

soon  ceased  to  be  purely  lexical  and  became  encyclopaedic 

in  character,  —  geographical,  biographical,  historical,    or 

^  Cf.  id.  Rhet.  iii.  3.  2.  As  early  as  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  we  find 
glosses  spoken  of,  since  Democritus  of  Abdera  (c.  410  B.C.)  wrote  a 
treatise  on  them  (He/ji  rXoxro-^co^). 


THE   ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  127 

philological,  according  to  the  purpose  or  the  tastes  of  the 
glossographer.  The  chief  of  these  glossographers  we 
have  already  mentioned,  —  Philetas  of  Cos,  Zenodotus, 
Aristophanes  of  Byzantium,  Aristarchus,  Crates,  and 
Herodianus.*  In  later  times,  the  glosses  were  regularly 
collected  and  arranged  as  running  commentaries  on  the 
language  of  the  text,  —  the  best-known  collectors  of  these 
being  Hesychius,  Photius,  Zonaras,  Suidas,  and  the  com- 
piler of  the  Etymologicum  Magnum.  In  its  developed 
meaning,  the  word  "  gloss  "  is  to  be  understood  in  the 
same  sense  as  scholium.  Very  few  scholia  have  come  down 
to  us  with  the  author's  name  attached;  but  such  as  exist 
are  usually  written  upon  the  margin  or  between  the  lines 
of  a  codex  and  copied  from  the  work  of  the  earlier  scholiasts. 
The  scholia  generally  bear  evidence  of  having  been  written 
much  later  than  the  date  when  the  codex  itself  was  written. 
Scholia  in  the  margin  are  known  as  gloss(B  marginales] 
those  written  between  the  lines  are  called  glosscB  inter- 
lineares? 

Something  must  be  said  here  of  the  study  of  Art 
among  the  Greeks.  So  far  as  any  evidence  remains,  their 
early  writings  on  this  theme  must  have  been  very  limited 
in   extent   so   far  as  they   concern  {esthetics.      There   is 

^Athenaeus,  writing  about  the  year  250  a.d.,  alluded  to  thirty-five 
glossographers. 

2 See  Matthai,  Glossarm  Graeca  (Moscow,  i774-i77S);  a  list  of  the 
most  important  (Gk.)  scholia  is  given  by  Gudeman,  o/i.  cit.  pp.  20-21. 
Cf.  also  Hubner,  Encyclop.  pp.  37-40,  2d  ed.  (Berlin,  1892). 


128  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

scarcely  a  mention  of  any  formal  discussion  on  the  history 
of  architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  or  music.  The 
historians,  and  also  the  philosophers,  merely  give,  in  an 
incidental  way,  detached  and  inadequate  suggestions  as  to 
art,  artists,  and  works  of  art.  As  in  literature,  so  in  music, 
the  Greeks  of  the  Prae-Alexandrian  Age  devoted  them- 
selves more  to  creation  than  to  criticism.  Philostratus 
remarks,  however,  in  the  first  book  of  his  Lives  of  the 
Sophists,  that  Hippias  (c.  420  B.C.)  of  Elis  was  wont  to 
dispute  on  the  subject  of  painting  and  sculpture;  and  that 
Democritus  of  Abdera  wrote  a  work  on  painting  from  the 
living  model  {Jiepi  Zcoypacfyia^).  Other  treatises,  of  which 
we  know,  were  practical  in  their  character  and  were  writ- 
ten by  artists  for  artists,  regarding  the  "canon"  or  mathe- 
matical demonstration  of  those  proportions  which  produce 
beauty  in  the  human  form.^  There  are,  however,  acute 
criticisms  of  painting  scattered  throughout  the  writings  of 
Aristotle;  and  by  the  beginning  of  the  Alexandrian  Period, 
we  come  to  criticisms  which  are  not  technical  but  aesthetic. 
Thus,  Duris  of  Samos  was  among  the  first  to  collect  anec- 
dotes and  aphorisms  with  regard  to  painting.  Many 
representatives  of  the  Peripatetic  School  busied  themselves 

1  The  first  of  these  canons  was  that  of  Polyclitus  in  the  fifth  century 
B.C.  After  Polyclitus,  came  many  to  write  upon  the  technical  side  of 
sculpture;  but  not  until  after  Aristotle  was  there  much  written  on  the 
aesthetics  of  the  plastic  and  graphic  arts.  Vitruvius  in  the  preface  to  his 
seventh  book  names  a  number  of  writers  who  concerned  themselves  with 
the  principles  of  artistic  symmetry. 


THE    ALEXANDRIAN   PERIOD  1 29 

in  the  same  way.  As  a  rule,  the  artists  themselves  — 
men  who  understood  sculpture  and  bronze  casting  —  were 
the  authors  of  these  treatises.  At  Pergamum,  in  particu- 
lar, much  attention  was  paid  to  sculpture,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  and  it  was  there  that  the  Canon  of  Ten 
Sculptors  *  was  probably  drawn  up  to  match  the  Alexan- 
drian Canon  of  the  Ten  Orators.  Most  of  our  informa- 
tion with  regard  to  these  early  writers  comes  from  Roman 
scholars,  especially  from  Pliny  the  Elder;  or  else  from 
late  Greek  writers  such  as  Strabo  and  Pausanius  and 
Lucian.^ 

'  Quintilian,  xii.  10.  7. 

^  See  Jones,  Select  Passages  from  Ancient  Writers  Illustrative  of  the  His- 
tory of  Greek  Sculpture  (London,  1895)  ;  Overbeck,  Geschichte  der  griech- 
ischen  Plastik  (Leipzig,  1894) ;  and  Fowler  and  Wheeler,  Greek  Archaeology 
(New  York,  1909). 


IV 

THE   GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD 

Tradition  ascribes  the  date  of  the  founding  of  Rome 
to  the  eighth  century  B.C.  It  was  long,  however,  before  the 
Roman  people  either  acquired  or  attained  anything  that 
deserves  the  name  of  literary  culture,  polite  learning,  or 
philological  study.  Unlike  the  Greeks,  the  Romans  were 
a  rugged  race,  an  inland  race,  apart  from  the  magic  and 
the  mystery  of  the  sea.  The  small  settlement  along  the 
Tiber  was  pastoral  and  agricultural  for  many  centuries, 
having  little  commerce  with  external  peoples,  dwelling 
in  constant  danger  from  formidable  neighbours,  against 
whom  it  could  prevail  only  by  the  strictest  discipline  and 
the  intensest  concentration  of  interest.  Thus,  the  Ro- 
mans came  to  possess  the  civic  virtues  in  a  high  degree. 
Primarily,  their  ideal  was  efficiency,  intelligent  coopera- 
tion, and  a  love  of  the  concrete.  Their  patriciate  was 
formed  of  the  fighting  men.  Their  arts  were  arts  relating 
to  military  science  and  statesmanship  and  religion.  One 
distinctive  quality  which  they  possessed  was  a  wonderful 
tenacity  of  purpose.  Later,  when  they  had  vanquished 
their  enemies  throughout  Italy  and  had  builded  a  great 
nation,  the  characteristics  which  had  been  wrought  out 
in  them  by  centuries  of  toil  and  effort  were  to  be  seen  not 

130 


THE    GR/ECO-ROMAN    PERIOD  I3I 

only  in  what  they  created,  but  in  what  they  took  from 
others  and  transmuted  into  something  that  became  almost 
purely  Roman.* 

By  the  fourth  century  B.C.  they  were  reaching  the  point 
where  a  literature  of  their  own  was  beginning  to  display 
an  evolution  quite  independent  of  any  impulse  from  with- 
out. Their  annals  were  set  down  in  simple  prose.  Their 
laws  were  expressed  precisely  and  with  clearness.  It  is, 
indeed,  quite  characteristic  of  the  difference  between  the 
Greeks  and  the  Romans  that  Greek  children  should 
have  been  set  to  learn  by  heart  long  passages  from  the 
Homeric  poems,  while  Roman  children  were  compelled 
to  memorise  the  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  Yet  there 
were  at  Rome  at  least  the  beginnings  of  poetical  com- 
position in  lyrics  sung  in  artless  rhythms.  Lyric  Poetry 
at  Rome  was  first  found,  not  as  an  exotic,  but  in  the 
nenicB,  the  spells,  the  charms,  the  lullabies  that  were 
crooned  over  little  children,  and  in  other  songs  that  were 
chanted  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  dance. ^  A  native 
Drama  —  a  sort  of  extemporaneous  comedy  —  was  not 
unknown.  We  find  even  the  traces  of  a  gradual  drift 
away  from  the  ancient  versus  Italicus  to  the  more  regular 

^  See  Pais,  Ancient  Legends  of  Roman  History,  Eng.  trans.,  pp.  1-59 
(New  York,  1905)  ;  Michaut,  Le  Genie  Latin  (Paris,  1900)  ;  and  Weise, 
Charakteristik  der  lateinischen  Sprache  (Leipzig,  1905). 

^  See  the  pages  on  very  early  Latin  —  the  hymns,  the  litanies,  the  folk- 
poetry,  the  priestly  Hterature,  and  the  legal  writings  —  in  DuflF,  A  Literary 
History  of  Rome,  pp.  63-89  (London  and  Leipzig,  1909).  See  also  De- 
douvres,  Les  Latins,  pp.  39-79  (Paris,  1903). 


132  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

form  of  the  Saturnian  measure.  This  last,  though  it  was 
often  rude,  was  capable  of  a  really  artistic  treatment, 
and  it  was  to  the  early  Romans  what  the  dactylic  hex- 
ameter was  to  the  early  Greeks.  Nor  is  there  any  doubt 
that  Oratory  was  fairly  well  developed,  since  oratory,  as 
has  been  rightly  said,  belongs  to  "the  literature  that  tends 
to  statesmanship."^  Eloquence  was  necessary  for  the 
senator,  or  the  popular  leader,  and  it  was  necessary  also 
for  the  commander  of  an  army  in  the  field.  Therefore 
we  can  reasonably  assert  that  even  had  Rome  not  come 
into  contact  with  Hellenic  influences,  there  would  still 
have  been  created,  slowly,  but  quite  surely,  not  only  a 
literature  but  a  learning,  absolutely  Roman  both  in  form 
and  content.^ 

There  had  been  some  desultory  relations  between  the 
Romans  and  the  Greeks  farther  back  than  is  recorded  by 
authentic  history.  From  the  Chalcidian  Greeks  of  Cam- 
pania the  Romans  had  borrowed  their  Alphabet.^  From 
the   Etruscans  also  the   Romans    had    acquired  certain 

'  The  earliest  Roman  oration  written  out  for  publication  almost  ante- 
dates formal  Roman  poetry.  It  was  delivered  in  280  B.C.  by  Appius 
Claudius  against  the  terms  of  peace  offered  by  PjTrhus,  and  was  read  and 
studied  at  Rome  for  at  least  two  centuries.     See  Sears,  op.  cit.,  p.  94- 

2  See  Ihne,  Early  Rome  (New  York,  1902);  Mommsen,  A  History  of 
Rome  (Eng.  trans.)  vol.  ii,  pp.  23-315  (New  York,  1903-05);  and  the 
early  chapters  of  Bernhardy,  Grundriss  der  romischen  Litteratur,  sth  ed., 
(Brunswick,  1875). 

sSee  Lindsay,  The  Latin  Language,  pp.  1-12  (Oxford,  1894);  Peters, 
"Recent  Theories  of  the  Alphabet,"  in  vol.  xxi,  Journal  of  the  Oriental 
Society  (1901);   and  Clodd,  Tlie  Story  of  the  Alpfiabet  (New  York,  1903). 


THE    GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 33 

religious  beliefs  and  practices  as  well  as  arts.  But  when 
the  Roman  arms  advanced  southward  and  began  to  con- 
quer the  Greek  cities  of  Magna  Grascia  and  Sicily,  then 
there  came  a  direct  contact  with  Hellenic  culture.  This 
was  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  century  B.C.  At  that 
time,  the  Romans,  in  their  war  with  the  Greek  king 
Pyrrhus,  overran  the  luxurious  towns  of  southern  Italy 
and  seized  the  rich  and  splendid  city  of  Tarentum.  The 
knowledge  which  thus  came  to  them  of  the  magnificence 
of  Greece  was  a  startling  revelation.  To  the  rough  sol- 
diers, and  rustic  cultivators  of  Latium,  Greek  art,  Greek 
science  and  Greek  literature  and  learning  became  realities 
to  fascinate  and  to  encourage  imitation.  Little  by  little 
there  sprang  up  in  Rome  a  sort  of  Greecomania  compar- 
able with  the  Etruscomania  of  the  later  imperial  age  and 
with  the  successive  Gallomania  and  Anglomania  of  our 
own  country  in  the  last  century.  The  Romans  learned 
the  sister  language,  and  many  of  them  spoke  and  wrote  it 
in  preference  to  their  own;  while  men  of  genius  adapted 
the  still  rude  Latin  tongue  to  the  varied  forms  of  Hel- 
lenic literature.  Not  long  afterward,  the  First  and  Second 
Punic  Wars  burst  forever  the  bonds  of  Roman  isolation. 
Because  of  them  the  Roman  people  gained  an  outlook 
that  was  not  Roman  merely,  nor  even  Latin  and  Italian, 
but  in  the  end  broadly  cosmopolitan.  As  by  a  flash,  Rome 
saw  at  once  what  high  civilisation  and  exquisite  culture 
really  meant.     In  a   single  generation,    Greece  gave  to 


134  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Rome  the  treasures  which  she  had  been  garnering  for 
centuries.  The  effect  upon  the  whole  subsequent  develop- 
ment of  the  Roman  people  was  profound  and  lasting. 
The  ablest  minds  among  them  grasped  the  significance  of 
the  revelation.  Men  like  the  Scipios  and  the  Metelli  wel- 
comed the  graces  of  life.  By  this  time  there  was  a  so- 
called  Greek  set  which  grew  in  influence,  despite  the  gibes 
and  sneers  of  Cato  and  other  partisans  of  the  ancient  order. 
In  time,  thousands  of  captive  Greeks,  including  men 
of  the  highest  attainments,  were  scattered  over  Italy  as 
hostages,   ambassadors,   and  teachers. 

The  first  evidence  of  Hellenic  Influence  is  probably  to 
be  found  in  literature  when  Livius  Andronicus  (c.  250  B.C.), 
by  birth  a  Greek,  was  brought  as  a  slave  to  Rome,  and, 
after  receiving  his  freedom,  made  a  living  by  teaching 
his  native  language.  It  was  he  who  translated  the  Odyssey 
into  Saturnian  verse.  It  was  a  rude  and  uninspired  piece 
of  work,  yet  for  generations  it  remained  a  schoolbook  for 
Roman  boys  and  girls.  In  240  B.C.  he  set  upon  the  stage 
the  first  of  many  dramas  which  he  laboriously  constructed 
after  Grecian  models.  He  likewise  attempted  lyric  poetry, 
being  commissioned  by  the  State  to  write  a  hymn  in  honour 
of  Juno.^     Gnseus  Naevius,  who  was  freeborn  and  the  citi- 

*  See  Ribbeck,  Geschichte  der  romischen  Dichliing,  2d  ed.,  i,  p.  15  foil. 
(Leipzig,  1897-1900);  and  Momrasen,  History  of  Rome,  Eng.  trans.,  ii, 
p.  498  (New  York,  1903);  the  chapter  in  Mackail's  Latin  Literature  (New 
York,  1907);  and  that  on  "The  Earliest  Italian  Literature"  in  Nettle- 
ship,  Essays  in  Latin  Literature  (Oxford,  1885). 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  I35 

zen  of  a  Latin  town  in  Campania,  really  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  Latin  literature.  He  was  no  foreign  sycophant,  but 
had  the  independent  spirit  of  his  race.  He  wrote  much, 
adapting  often  from  the  Greek,  but  also  producing  dramas 
based  upon  Roman  history.  In  these  and  elsewhere  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  attack  the  most  powerful  patricians, 
especially  the  Metelli.  For  this,  in  the  end,  he  was  impris- 
oned and  banished  and  died  in  exile.  He  was,  in  truth, 
a  Roman  of  the  Romans.  He  clung  to  the  native  Satur- 
nian  verse,  and  in  his  Punka,  writing  of  the  First  Punic 
War,  he  introduced  that  legend  which  links  the  Trojan 
/Eneas  with  Roman  history.  Thus,  he  was  the  precursor 
of  Vergil,  for  his  Epic  was  long  read,  and  parts  of  it  are 
embedded  in  the  Mneid}  To  Naevius  are  also  due  the 
beginnings  of  Satire,  whereof  Quintilian  long  afterward 
remarked  that  "  satire,  indeed,  is  wholly  ours."  Not  only 
did  Nasvius  use  the  native  Saturnian  verse,  but  he  held 
fast  to  the  Roman  love  of  alliteration  and  repetition  which 
were  distasteful  to  the  Greek  poets;  ^  so  that  when  he  died 
he  left  behind  him  a  mass  of  literature  which  was  neither 
Greek  nor  imitated  from  the  Greek,  but  was  rather  Roman 
in  spirit  and  in  form.  He  and  those  who  followed  him 
prove  that  if  Rome  had  never  felt  the  deft  touch  of  the 

^Quintilian,  x,  i,  93.  Also,  on  the  Roman  satire,  Nettleship,  Lectures 
and  Essays  (second  series),  pp.  24-43  (Oxford,  1895). 

^On  alliteration,  see  Botticher,  De  Alliterclionis  apud  Romanos  Vi 
et  Usu  (Berlin,  18S4);  and  on  dynamic  repetition,  Abbott,  The  Use  of 
Repetition  in  Latin  (Chicago,  1902). 


136  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Hellene,  it  would  still  have  given  birth  to  prose  and  verse 
worthy  of  a  great  nation.  Professor  Duff  has  rightly  said, 
in  speaking  of  this  Roman  strain,  which  is  never  missing:  — 

This  native  literature,  then,  is  often  cumbersome,  and  as  yet 
lacks  the  highest  distinction  of  style  and  grace,  but  is  no  less  often 
solemn  and  dignified  —  it  is  always  mascuhne.  However  power- 
ful and  brilliant  the  incoming  Hellenic  influence,  these  pre-HeUenic 
products  of  Rome  must  not  be  disdained  as  feeble  and  discon- 
nected with  the  literature  that  was  to  follow.  Impotence  cannot 
create;  and  this  early  work  had  issue.  It  contained  the  germs 
of  later  success.  Genius  cannot  be  borrowed:  it  can  be  modified 
and  developed.  Above  all,  it  can  borrow,  and  make  the  loan  its 
own.     That  was  the  case  with  Rome. 

In  truth,  no  nation  possessing  the  power  of  growth, 
endued  with  energy,  and  able  to  make  history,  can  long 
remain  in  its  literature  a  mere  imitator.  In  a  thousand 
directions  it  must  strike  out  for  itself,  conquering  its 
own  difficulties,  fulfilling  its  own  ambitions,  and  achieving 
great  things  which  alter  its  own  character.  Since,  then, 
literature  is  a  mirror  to  reflect  this  character  and  the 
achievements  that  are  allied  with  it,  it  will  soon  reflect 
the  interplay  of  myriad  forces,  the  presence  of  innumer- 
able cross-currents,  the  perpetual  shifting  and  changing 
of  the  golden  sands  of  thought.  For  a  while  it  remains 
in  leading-strings,  but  after  a  time  it  will  evolve  its  own 
masterpieces  and  will  work  them  out  in  its  own  way.  Let 
us  take  an  example  from  modern  times  and  compare 
the  literature  of  England  with  that  of  the  United  States. 

*  Duff,  op.  cit.,  p.  91. 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  I37 

The  language  of  the  two  nations  is  the  same,  but  Americans 
were  at  first  too  much  cumbered  with  material  affairs 
to  attempt  in  any  serious  way  the  literary  art.  They  read 
English  books  or  they  imitated  them  in  a  pathetically 
humble  fashion.  But  in  time,  after  the  Republic  had 
shaken  off  its  political  bonds  and  had  developed  new 
interests  of  its  own,  its  literature  began  to  show  that  it, 
too,  was  attaining  independence.  It  found  new  themes 
and  it  had  new  modes  of  treating  them.  One  sees  the 
first  departure  from  the  English  model  in  Irving  and  in 
Cooper.  After  that,  and  when  the  young  nation  had  grown 
conscious  of  his  own  power,  there  arose  authors  such  as 
Emerson  and  Thoreau,  Walt  Whitman,  Bret  Harte,  Clem- 
ens, Howells  and  a  score  of  others  who  were  American 
to  the  very  core  in  all  they  wrote. 

And  so  in  Rome  the  imitative  period  lasted  only  a  very 
little  time.  In  the  feeble,  creeping,  childish  sense,  it 
ends  with  Gnaeus  Naevius,  and  soon  afterward  there 
bursts  forth  into  full  flower  a  literature  whose  technique 
came  from  Hellas,  but  whose  spirit  and  character  were 
Roman.  Latin  literature,  in  fact,  was  revolutionised 
by  two  men,  both  of  Italian  birth,  who  by  their  genius 
gave  to  Latin  the  initial  impulse  which  freed  it  forever 
from  any  slavish  subservience  to  the  Greek.  The  earlier 
language  in  which  Livius  Andronicus  wrote  his  stumbling 
measures,  and  which  even  Nasvius  used  clumsily,  though 
with  force,  lacked  that  lightness  and  mobility  which  would 


138  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

make  it  fit  for  poetry  and  for  the  finest  prose.  It  lacked 
also  an  ampler  and  fuller  vocabulary  which  should  give 
both  to  the  poet  and  to  the  prose  writer  a  more  varied 
instrument  of  expression.  It  was  Quintus  Ennius  (239- 
c.  172  B.C.)  who  made  the  Latin  language  fit  for  noble 
poetry;  and  it  was  Titus  Maccius  Plautus  (c.  254-184  B.C.) 
who  gave  it  a  wealth  of  new  words,  which,  to  be  sure,  in 
his  time  did  not  all  win  general  acceptance,  but  which 
in  a  later  century  received  the  approval  of  the  still 
greater  master,  Cicero. 

Like  Livius  Andronicus,  Ennius  was  a  teacher;  and 
like  Livius,  his  personal  influence  helped  to  make  his 
literary  innovations  successful,  —  a  circumstance  also  due 
to  the  tact  and  linguistic  skill  shown  in  everything  he  did. 
Ennius  held  precisely  the  position  in  the  Roman  world 
to  give  weight  to  his  teaching  and  example.  He  had 
personally  trained  in  letters  many  of  the  young  nobles 
who  were  taking  their  places  at  the  head  of  the  State. 
He  was  the  intimate  friend  of  several  of  the  Scipios,  and 
he  has  been  said  to  have  taught  Greek  even  to  the  Elder 
Cato,  who  was  famous  for  his  hatred  of  all  that  was 
Greek.  Ennius  was  himself  a  man  of  most  engaging 
personal  qualities,  well-read,  genial,  courteous,  and  refined; 
and  with  these  natural  gifts  and  artificial  advantages,  he 
carried  forward  the  work  of  Naevius.  His  sensitive  ear 
and  correct  taste  rebelled  against  the  heavy  and  lumbering 
verses  which  were  at  first  his  models  and  which  were  the 


THE   GEJECO-ROMAN  PERIOD  1 39 

best  that  could  be  written  under  the  limitations  of  the 
language  as  it  had  hitherto  been  used  for  literary  purposes. 
He  set  himself  the  task  of  infusing  into  it  some  of  the  Greek 
lightness,  the  Greek  smoothness,  and  the  Greek  grace. 
The  greatest  obstacles  in  the  way  of  this  were  two :  first, 
the  obstinate  adherence  by  his  predecessors  to  the  natural 
or  word-accent,  which  kept  the  verse  on  the  level  of  prose; 
and  second  (partly  because  of  this  accentual  limitation), 
the  extraordinary  number  of  long  syllables.^  He  now 
attempted  an  experiment  that  was  destined  to  give  to 
Roman  literature  not  only  stateliness  but  style.  With 
much  sagacity  he  refrained  from  making  any  innovations 
in  iambic  and  trochaic  poetry.  There,  tradition  had 
already  established  a  usage  which  he  did  not  care  to 
combat;  but  he  turned  to  an  entirely  new  kind  of  verse 
and  to  a  new  theme,  which  might  justify  and  render  natural 
a  new  system  of  Prosody. 

It  has  been  a  mooted  question  whether  the  dactylic 
hexameter  had  been  used  at  all  in  Latin  before  the  time 
of  Ennius.  There  exist  no  literary  remains  of  such  verse 
that  can  be  confidently  called  genuine.  According  to 
Varro,  Plautus  wrote  his  own  epitaph  in  hexameters,  but 
it  cannot  be  shown  that  he  did  it  earlier  than  the  composi- 
tion of  the  great  epic  of  Ennius  —  the  Annales.  The  so- 
called  Marcian  Oracles  were  possibly  in  hexameters,  though 
the  quotations  given  by  Livy  do  not  justify  this  view.    Yet 

'  Horace,  Ars  Poetica,  259-260. 


I40  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

even  if  some  few  stray  attempts  had  been  made  at  imposing 
this  metrical  form  upon  Latin,  certainly  no  extended 
hterary  work  had  ever  been  written  in  it;  and  Ennius, 
in  writing  the  Annales,  had  the  field  entirely  to  himself. 
As  it  was  distinctly  a  new  field,  such  changes  as  he  might 
make  in  the  matter  of  forms  and  measures  and  quantities 
would  arouse  less  criticism  than  like  changes  in  a  more 
familiar  sphere.  The  alterations  that  he  effected  by  his 
own  example  may  be  roughly  summarised  as  follows:  — 

(i)  A  fairly  frequent  use  of  a  metrical  accent  as  distin- 
guished from  the  natural,  colloquial  accent  of  a  word. 

(2)  A  diminution  in  the  number  of  varying  quantities. 
Ennius  regarded  as  short  nearly  all  the  syllables  as  to 
which  there  had  previously  been  any  doubt,  as,  for  instance, 
musd,  patre.     Thus  dactyls  were  made  possible  and  easy. 

(3)  By  way  of  compensation  he  regarded  all  vowels 
that  stood  before  two  consonants  (not  a  mute  and  a  liquid) 
as  being  long  by  position,  after  the  rule  of  the  Greek. 

(4)  The  elision  of  a  final  vowel,  or  of  a  syllable  ending 

in  w  before  a  vowel.     Ennius  himself  also  made  little 

account  of  a  final  s,  in  this  following  the  pronunciation 

prevalent  at  that  period  and  long  after.^ 

'  Birt,  Historia  Hexametri  Latini  (Bonn,  1876);  Miiller,  Greek  and 
Latin  Versification,  Eng.  trans.  (Boston,  1895);  Klotz,  Griindziige  der 
altromischen  Mclrik  (Leipzig,  1890);  Plessis,  Metrique  Grecque  et  Latine 
(Paris,  1889);  Westphal,  Allgemeine  Melrik  (Berlin,  1892);  and  the 
treatise  by  Gleditsch  in  Ivvan  Miiller's  Handbuch,  ii.  Compare  also  Havet, 
De  Saturnio  Latinorum  Versa  (Paris,  1880);  Thurneysen,  Der  Salurnizr 
(Halle,  18S5);  and  du  Bois,  Stress  Accent  in  Latin  Poetry,  pp.  24-74 
(New  York,   1906). 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  I4I 

These  changes  seem  comparatively  simple,  yet  they  were 
sufficient  to  alter  radically  the  whole  structure  of  Latin 
verse.  The  number  of  doubtful  vowels  which  were  now 
converted  into  short  ones  gave  to  the  language  of  poetry 
that  ease  and  lightness  which  are  to  be  found  in  later 
dramatic  compositions.  Whatever  was  done  by  succeed- 
ing writers  in  giving  mobility  to  the  language,  was  done 
wholly  because  of  the  example  which  Ennius  first  set 
in  relieving  the  heaviness  of  verbal  structure.  After  he 
had  made  all  his  changes,  there  were  still  left  many  long 
syllables  which  Lucretius,  and  Vergil  after  him,  found  it 
expedient  to  shorten.  But  it  is  because  of  Ennius  that  the 
language  of  Latin  poetry  has  definiteness  and  form,  that 
it  became  better  fitted  for  the  use  of  those  who  were  further 
to  polish  and  enrich  it;  while,  on  the  purely  literary  side, 
he  set  a  very  high  standard  below  which  no  writer  could 
fall  and  hope  to  receive  an  equal  share  of  honour. 

Ennius,  as  already  said,  was  a  great  innovator  in  form 
and  style.  He  was  not  a  creator  of  language,  in  spite  of 
the  praise  given  him  by  Horace.*  There  remain  to  us 
about  twelve  hundred  fragments  of  the  different  writings 
of  Ennius;  but  in  all  of  them  there  are  to  be  found  only 
twenty-two  words  that  are  peculiar  to  him,  while  in  430 
lines  of  a  writer  like  Pacuvius,  who  prided  himself  upon 
his  conservatism,  there  are  thirty-three  aira^  elprjfieva. 
From  this  comparison  one  can  see  how  little  Ennius  prob- 
'  Horace,  Ars  Poetica,  54-56. 


142  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

ably  added  to  the  vocabulary  of  the  language.  The 
verbal  enrichment  which  it  needed  came  from  another 
source,  and  one  which  would  at  first  sight  have  seemed  a 
most  unlikely  one. 

It  is  in  Titus  Maccius  Plautus  that  one  finds,  after 
surveying  all  literature,  ancient  and  modern,  the  closest 
parallel  to  Shakespeare,  —  modified,  of  course,  by  many 
essential  differences,  but  on  the  whole  true  enough  to  be 
very  striking.  Like  Shakespeare,  Plautus  was  of  humble 
origin  and  the  native  of  a  country  town.  Like  Shake- 
speare's, his  education  seems  to  have  been  chiefly  of  that 
sort  which  comes  from  association  with  men  rather  than 
with  books.  Like  Shakespeare,  he  was  at  first  a  subordi- 
nate, attached  to  a  theatre;  then  a  hack  writer  who  modern- 
ised old  plays;  and  finally,  a  dramatist  who  apparently 
wrote  with  little  care  for  fame,  but  with  the  thought  of  his 
audience  always  before  his  mind.  The  age  in  which 
Plautus  wrote  resembles  in  many  ways  the  age  of  Eliza- 
beth and  James.  There  was  in  the  air  the  stirring  of  an 
adventurous  spirit.  The  nation  was  awakening  to  a  sense 
of  its  own  power,  and  entering  upon  an  era  of  conquest 
and  supremacy.  Rome  was  touched  by  something  of  the 
mercurial  temper  of  Greece,  just  as  the  England  of 
Shakespeare  displayed  much  of  the  gayety  and  reckless- 
ness of  France.  Rome,  too,  was  facing  the  Carthaginians 
in  battle,  just  as  England  was  confronting  the  armies  and 
fleets  of  Spain.     The  victory  of  Duilius  off  Mylae,  and  the 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  I43 

defeat  of  the  Armada  by  Drake,  the  conquest  of  Sicily, 
and  the  colonisation  of  the  New  World,  — these,  each  in 
its  own  time  and  in  its  own  way,  stirred  Rome  and  Eng- 
land to  their  depths.  There  was  an  intellectual  and  po- 
litical quickening  which  stimulated  both  the  Roman  and 
the  English  people  to  look  with  favour  upon  whatever 
was  new,  original,  and  strong. 

If  the  people  for  whom  Plautus  and  Shakespeare 
wrote  were  much  alike;  if  the  ages  in  which  they  lived  were 
not  dissimilar,  so  the  cast  of  mind  and  the  richness  of 
intellectual  endowment  of  these  two  great  masters  of 
language  have  a  kinship  of  their  own.^  The  differences, 
of  course,  are  all  immensely  in  Shakespeare's  favour. 
In  Plautus  there  is  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  pure  poetry 
which  breathes  through  almost  everything  that  Shakespeare 
wrote.  His  tone  is  many  degrees  lower.  The  fact  that 
he  wrote  comedy  alone,  while  Shakespeare  composed 
immortal  tragedies  as  well;  the  occurrence  of  the  same 
types  —  the  foolish  old  man,  the  austere  old  man;  the 
swindling  slave,  the  faithful  slave;  the  loose  young  man, 
and  the  precise  young  man;  the  lying,  foul-mouthed 
courtesan,  and  the  inexperienced,  affectionate  meretrix; 
the  parasite,  and  the  bullying  soldier,  —  all  this  repetition, 
despite  the  writer's  extraordinary  inventiveness  and  vigour, 
becomes  monotonous  and  perhaps  makes  us  feel  that  we 

*  See,  in  general,  Ribbeck's  comments  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Romische 
Dichtung,i  (Leipzig,  1897-1900). 


144  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 

have  been  tarrying  too  long  among  the  slums  of  the  ancient 
world.  Very  much,  however,  of  this  absence  of  what  is 
elevating  and  refined,  much  of  its  coarseness  and  vulgarity, 
were  imposed  on  Plautus  by  the  conditions  under  which 
he  wrote.  Forbidden  to  touch  upon  Roman  topics,  and 
warned  by  the  fate  of  Naevius,  with  an  audience  that  did 
not  yet  contain  the  well-bred  portion  of  the  community, 
and  being  thus  practically  forced  to  model  his  plays 
upon  the  New  Comedy  of  the  Greeks,  one  must  not  criti- 
cise him  too  severely.  Plautus  was  working  in  a  harness 
which  sorely  hampered  him.  Then,  too,  his  own  sensibil- 
ities were  not  nice.  He  had  been  himself  a  slave  and  he 
had  consorted  with  other  slaves;  and  never,  like  Ennius 
and  Terence  and  Shakespeare,  was  he  a  protege  of  the 
great.  He  saw  only  one  side  of  life,  and  that  the  side 
which  verges  on  the  gutter.  And  it  was  this  side  that  his 
audiences  most  of  all  delighted  to  see  reproduced  upon 
the  stage.  Hence  we  must  compare  Plautus  not  with 
Shakespeare  as  a  whole,  but  with  those  portions  of  Shake- 
speare where  the  themes  and  the  motives  of  the  two 
dramatists  are  similar.  Judged  in  this  way,  it  cannot  be 
said  that  Plautus  is  inferior.  His  buffoons,  his  hypocrites 
and  sharpers  and  slaves  and  courtesans  are  as  richly 
humorous  and  doubtless  quite  as  true  to  life  in  their  way 
as  those  whom  Shakespeare  drew.  Pyrgopolinices  is 
merely  Sir  John  Falstaff  turned  into  Latin.  Megar- 
onides  in  the  Trinummiis  is  the  twin  brother  of  Polonius, 


THE    GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 45 

while  the  Dromios  of  Shakespeare  are  actually  taken  from 
the  MencBchmi  of  Plautus. 

But  it  is  not  from  the  literary,  but  from  the  linguistic, 
standpoint  that  we  have  now  to  look  at  Plautus;  and  it 
is  in  his  language,  if  anywhere,  that  Shakespeare  finds  his 
rival.  After  studying  Plautus  carefully,  we  are  conscious 
more  and  more  of  the  enormous  debt  which  the  Latin 
language  owes  him.  He  alone,  by  his  individual  and 
unaided  genius,  transformed  it  from  an  awkward,  cramped, 
ungraceful  dialect  into  an  instrument  of  speech  fit  for 
expressing  a  wide  range  of  human  thought  with  ease  and 
clearness  and  precision.  Plautus  was  a  great  language- 
maker,  and  not  merely  an  improver.  His  fancy  not  merely 
caught  at  an  idea,  but  flung  it  out  at  once  into  an  appro- 
priate verbal  form.  If  he  had  not  the  word  he  wished, 
then  he  made  the  word;  and  when  he  had  made  it,  it 
was,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred,  the  very  word 
which  the  language  lacked,  so  that  it  fixed  itself  firmly  in 
the  vocabulary  of  the  people,  and  remained  there  because 
it  was  an  actual  necessity.  Plautus  as  a  word-maker 
seems  inexhaustible.  His  fertility  is  as  boundless  as  his 
wit.  No  Latin  writer  except  Apuleius,  three  centuries 
afterward,  ever  coined  so  many  words.  The  comparison 
of  Plautus  with  Apuleius  shows  exactly  where  the  great- 
ness of  the  former  lies.  Apuleius  coins  words  from  mere 
eccentricity  or  because  he  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  find 
the  fitting  ones.  Plautus  strikes  out  a  new  phrase,  a 
z. 


146  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

striking  combination,  a  picturesque  epithet,  because  the 
existing  vocabulary  is  too  poor  to  furnish  an  equivalent. 
To  sum  it  up  in  a  sentence,  the  invention  of  Plautus  proves 
the  poverty  of  the  language;  the  invention  of  Apuleius 
proves  the  poverty  of  the  writer. 

Plautus  is  the  one  who,  in  this  period  of  transition, 
doubled  the  capacity  of  the  Latin  language.  The  words 
that  he  invented  v/ere  made  by  him  instinctively,  accord- 
ing to  the  various  formulae  which  Horace  afterward  de- 
scribed^ with  so  much  insight.  The  additions  which  he 
made  to  the  Latin  vocabulary  fall  under  various  heads :  — 

(i)  Words  borrowed  directly  from  the  Greek:  e.g.  dica 
(BiKT)),  dapsilis  (SayjnXt]'?) ;  dulice  (SofXi/cco?) ;  euscheme 
{eua-)(^T)ixoi<i)]  logos  (X.oyo'i);  sycophantio  (crvKocpavTeco) ;  tar- 
pessita    (rpaTre^trrj';) ;     etc. 

(2)  Comic  words,  chiefly  patronymics  and  long  com- 
pounds: e.g.  Virginesvendonides,  the  son  of  a  pander, 
and,  comically  again,  pernonides,  "  a  flitch  of  bacon  "  de- 
scribed majestically  as  the  son  of  a  ham.  So,  again,  scu- 
talosagittipelligcr.  There  is  very  little  doubt  that  Plautus 
here  in  a  semi-comic  way  tried  to  do  what  the  learned 
Pacuvius  seriously  attempted,  —  that  is,  the  formation  in 
Latin  of  compound  words,  —  but  Plautus  failed  as  did 
Pacuvius. 

(3)  New  words  formed  after  the  analogy  of  other  words 
near  which  they  stand  in  the  text,  or  which  suggest  them: 

'  Horace,  Ars  Poetica,  46-72. 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 47 

e.g.  perenticida  suggested  by  parcnticidi;  sicelicisso  sug- 
gested by  atticisso;  and  recharmido  and  decharmido  sug- 
gested by  charmido  (from  Charmides). 

(4)  Compound  words  freely  made  and  generally  there- 
after adopted  into  the  language:  e.g.  opiparus,  parci- 
promus,  pauciloquia,  salipotens,  stultiloquentia ;  and  even 
better,  opimitas,  mendicitas,  minatio,  moderatrix,  oratrix, 
perdisco,  perlibet,  etc.  Words  of  this  class  are  either 
based  upon  existing  words  and  modified  to  give  a  different 
shade  of  meaning,  or  they  are  invented  of  necessity:  e.g. 
osor,  perplexibalis,  pollentia,  trahax,  etc.,  or  else  they  are 
verbs  boldly  formed  out  of  existing  nouns  and  adjectives: 
e.g.  paro,  parasitor,  .pergrcBcor,  scortor,  sororio,  etc. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Plautus  enriched  the  language  with 
words  for  common  use.  His  word-formations  were 
brought  about  with  that  unerring  judgment  which  makes 
the  new  word,  from  the  very  moment  when  it  is  uttered, 
seem  Latin  and  utterly  indigenous.  If  it  be  a  Greek 
word,  it  is  so  modified  as  to  take  on  a  Latin  form.  If  it 
be  a  new  word,  it  is  formed  upon  the  analogy  of  words 
already  existing.  If  it  be  an  old  word  used  in  a  new 
sense,  this  new  sense  is  given  it  where  the  context  makes 
the  new  sense  absolutely  plain.  Plautus  is  the  first  of 
language-makers.  Those  who  followed  him  employed 
his  methods  though  they  wrote  for  the  learned.  Thus 
T.  Lucretius  Carus,  in  the  first  century  B.C.,  gives  to 
Roman  literature  a  philosophical  terminology  so  far  as  he 


148  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

needed  it  in  setting  forth  the  teachings  of  materialism.^ 
Cicero  still  later  enlarged  the  philosophical  vocabulary  by 
coining  words  to  express  thoughts  for  which  the  Latin 
language  then  had  no  equivalent.^  When  Christianity 
began  to  spread  over  the  Empire,  African  writers  such  as 
Tertullian  and  Augustine  and  St.  Jerome  introduced  a 
theological  vocabulary ;  but  they  all  fashioned  their  words 
on  the  principles  which  Plautus  in  the  early  days  of  Ro- 
man culture  had  grasped  by  instinct.^  Apuleius,  with  his 
fantastic  combinations,  is  the  Carlyle  of  Latin  litera- 
ture, while  Plautus,  as  was  said  before,  is  the  Roman 
Shakespeare. 

Thus  the  Latin  language  and  the  Latin  literature  de- 
veloped side  by  side,  in  a  growth  that  was  steady  and 
continuous.  The  drama  was  enriched  by  Marcus  Pacu- 
vius,  who  represents  a  succession  of  the  work  of  Ennius. 
His  doctrlna,  for  which  he  was  so  famous  in  antiquity,  is 
seen  in  his  attempt  to  make  long  compounds,  in  his  syntac- 
tical carefulness,  and  in  his  introduction  of  philosophical 

'  See  such  words  as  corpus  in  the  sense  of  "matter";  costus,  and  glomera- 
men,  "a  mass";  corpusculum,  or  principium,  or  primordiiim,  each  mean- 
ing "an  atom";  sensus  =  a-t(Tdr)(Ti.^\  reriim  summa,  " the  universe."  See 
FoWe,  De  Artis  V ocahulis  Qidbiisdam  Lucrdianis  (Dresden,  1866);  Merrill's 
Introduction  to  his  Lucretius,  pp.  42-47  (New  York,  1907);  and  Reiley, 
The  Philosophical  Terminology  of  Liicretius  and  Cicero  (New  York,  1909). 

^Note  such  words  as  ratio  (\6yoi),  qiialitas  {■jroi.dTrii),  species  (erSoj). 
See  Reiley,  op.  cit. 

^See  Schmidt,  De  Latinitate  Tertidliani  (Erlangen,  1870);  Condamin, 
De  Tertulliano  .  .  .  Chrisliance  Lingiice  Artifice  (Lyons,  1877);  and 
Cooper,  Word  Formation  in  the  Roman  Sermo  Flebeius  (New  York,  1895). 


THE    GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 49 

speculation  after  the  manner  of  Euripides.  Then  there 
follow  Lucius  Attius,  with  a  much  more  original  mind,  and 
probably  the  greatest  of  all  Roman  writers  of  tragedy; 
and  the  young  African,  Publius  Terentius  (185-159  B.C.), 
who  composed  comedies  which  in  their  own  manner  are 
most  admirable.  He  gives  us,  in  fact,  the  urbane  and 
polished  comedy  of  the  drawing-room,  all  with  singular 
refinement  and  a  remarkable  appreciation  of  character. 
Later,  the  legitimate  drama  declined,  and  mimes  took  the 
place  of  tragedy  and  comedy.  Yet  even  in  these  mimes 
—  as,  for  instance,  those  of  Publilius  Syrus  and  Decimus 
Laberius,  there  is  the  true  Roman  sententiousness,  shrewd 
practical  wisdom,  and  abundant  humour.*  Attempts  were 
made  in  the  Augustan  Age  to  revive  the  drama  in  its  ear- 
lier form,  but  of  these  attempts  we  have  no  remains,  as  we 
have  of  the  tragedies  of  the  younger  Seneca  written  in  the 
time  of  Nero  and  influencing  the  dramatists  of  France  and 
England  in  recent  centuries.  Ennius  had  invented  a  form 
of  satire  as  a  sort  of  literary  miscellany.  It  was  taken  up 
with  much  force  and  fire  by  Gaius  Lucilius,  from  whom 
Q,  Horatius  Flaccus  developed  a  genial  form  of  poetical 
composition  in  hexameter  verse,  in  which  he  pointed  out 
good-humouredly  the  follies  of  his  contemporaries.  After 
him,  Aulus  Persius  Flaccus,  a  rather  prim  and  bookish 
youth,  imitated  Horace  without  his  first-hand  knowledge 

'Otto,  Sprichworter  der  Romer  (Leipzig,  1890);    and  Sutphen,  Latin 
Proverbs  (Baltimore,  1902). 


150  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

of  life;  while  later  still,  Decimus  lunius  luvenalis  converted 
satire  into  a  whip  of  scorpions,  and  lashed  the  hideous 
vices  that  he  saw  about  him,  infusing  into  his  lines  a  cer- 
tain grim  irreverence  which  has  led  him  to  be  styled  the 
first  exponent  of  American  humour. 

The  Greek  influence  was  responsible  for  what  we  have 
of  philosophical  writing  among  the  Romans.  In  155  B.C., 
Carneades,  a  vehement  and  rapid  speaker,  representing 
the  New  Academy,  with  its  essential  scepticism,  came  upon 
a  diplomatic  mission  to  Rome  from  Athens.  While  there, 
he  publicly  discoursed  with  eloquence  and  subtlety  on  the 
advantages  of  justice.  The  next  day,  with  equal  elo- 
quence, he  refuted  all  his  arguments  of  the  day  before. 
This  was,  in  fact,  a  practical  demonstration  of  his  belief 
that  human  knowledge  is  uncertain  and  that  we  have 
no  absolute  standard  of  truth.  His  orations  won  him 
much  applause,  but  he  was  sent  back  to  Athens  without 
loss  of  time,  as  being  one  whose  tenets  were  essentially 
immoral.  Nevertheless,  from  this  time,  philosophy  — 
especially  that  of  the  ethical  schools  —  found  disciples  and 
expounders  among  the  Romans.^  Roman  philosophers 
gave  to  the  world  nothing  that  is  new;  yet  we  owe  to  such 
writers  as  Lucretius  the  Epicurean,  to  Cicero  the  Aca- 

'  See  IJsener,  Epicurea  (Leipzig,  1887);  Martha,  Le  Pocme  de  Lucrece, 
4th  ed.  (Paris,  1885);  Thiaucourt,  Lcs  Traites  Philosophiqiies  de  Ciceron 
et  Leiirs  Sources  Grecqiies  (Paris,  1885) ;  Zeller,  History  of  Eclecticism,  Eng. 
trans.  (London,  1893);  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  i  (New 
York,  1884);  and  Binde,  Seneca  (Glogau,  1883). 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  I51 

demic,  and  to  Seneca  the  pseudo-Stoic,  a  body  of  literature 
which  is  both  interesting  in  itself,  and  valuable  as  supply- 
ing a  knowledge  of  those  Greek  treatises  which  have  been 
lost.  Lucretius,  in  particular  (96-55  B.C.),  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  of  all  the  Roman  poets  in  originality,  in 
power,  and  in  the  peculiar  appeal  which  he  makes  to  the 
inherent  materialism  of  millions,  even  at  the  present  day. 
His  technique  in  his  use  of  the  hexameter  is  still  imper- 
fect; but  the  genius  of  the  writer  and  his  passionate  spiri- 
tual melancholy  overcome  defects  of  style  and  make  him 
in  some  respects  a  model  even  for  Vergil  and  the  cloyingly 
exquisite  Ovid. 

Epic  poetry  was  continued  from  the  rough  Saturnian 
in  which  Naevius  wrote  his  Punica  until  it  culminates  in 
the  splendid  national  poem  of  the  Mneid  —  a  marvellous 
mosaic  of  all  that  was  finest  in  both  Greek  and  Roman 
literature,  woven  together  by  P.  Vergilius  Marc  with  con- 
summate skill.  Later,  the  Spaniard,  Lucanus,  composed  in 
the  Pharsalia  an  epic  of  almost  contemporary  events, 
following  the  model  of  Naevius  and  Ennius,  but  suc- 
ceeded only  in  writing  brilliant  lines  which  have  added 
largely  to  the  world's  collection  of  epigrams.  The  epic 
on  a  Grecian  theme,  and  known  as  the  Thcbais,  by 
Statius,  marks  the  end  of  serious  epic  poetry  among  the 
Romans.^ 

Lyric  poetry  in  native  rhythms,  as  already  said,  ante- 

'  See  Gubematis,  Storia  della  Poesia  Epica  (Milan,  1883). 


152  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

dates  Hellenic  influence,  though  of  course  this  early 
poetry  was  informal.  But  we  have  already  noted  that 
Livius  Andronicus  composed  a  set  lyric  in  honour  of  Juno 
at  the  request  of  the  State.  However,  this  attempt  was 
unfruitful,  since  the  Latin  language  was  not  yet  adapted 
for  lyric  composition  that  could  vie  with  that  of  the  Greeks. 
It  was  not  until  the  time  of  Quintus  Valerius  Catullus  that 
we  find  lyric  poetry  in  Latin;  for  Catullus,  an  Italian  to 
the  core,  poured  forth  in  sapphics  and  easy  metres  the  wild 
longing  of  a  heart  surcharged  with  intense  emotion. 
In  many  respects  Catullus  was  an  Alexandrian  by  train- 
ing; but  in  the  lyrics  addressed  to  Lesbia,  his  tortured 
mingling  of  love  and  hate  are  so  free  from  the  pedantry 
of  Alexandrianism  as  to  make  him  seem  the  predecessor 
of  Gabriele  d'Annunzio.  With  no  such  passion,  yet  with 
infinite  grace,  dignity,  humour,  wit,  or  melancholy,  accord- 
ing to  his  subject,  Horace  followed  Catullus,  and  to-day 
must  be  styled  the  greatest  master  of  lyric  verse  among 
the  Latins;  for  he  managed  with  perfect  ease  the  more 
difficult  measures  of  the  Grecian  lyrists,  and  remained 
less  Alexandrian  and  more  truly  Roman  than  any  of  his 
contemporaries.  Elegiac  verse  in  Rome  was  especially 
represented  by  Ovid,  and  Propertius,  and  Tibullus,  —  con- 
temporaries, or  nearly  so,  of  Horace.^ 

'  See  Ribbeck,  op.  cit.  i;  Werner,  Lyrik  mid  Lyriker  (Leipzig,  1890)  ; 
and  Sellar,  The  Roman  Pods  of  the  Augustan  Age  (Oxford,  1892).  Cf. 
also  du  Meril,  Poesies  Popidaires  Latines  (Paris,  1843);  and  Weissenfels, 
Iloraz  (Berlin,  1899). 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 53 

Roman  prose  begins  practically  with  Cato  the  Censor 
(234-149  B.C.) — soldier,  statesman,  orator,  farmer,  and 
also  writer;  for  he  produced  works  on  military  science, 
on  agriculture,  and  what  would  to-day  be  of  vast  interest 
to  us,  a  treatise  entitled  Origines,^  in  which  he  discussed 
the  history,  antiquities,  and  language  of  the  Roman  people. 
Some  slighter  treatises  of  his  relate  respectively  to  medicine, 
to  epistolary  composition,  and  to  anecdotes.  Practically 
all  that  we  have  left  is  the  little  monograph,  De  Re  Rustica, 
a  practical  handbook  on  the  management  of  a  farm. 
Other  Romans  at  a  comparatively  early  period  wrote  the 
annals  of  their  own  country,  but  they  employed  the  Greek 
language  until  the  time  of  Cato.  This  form  of  narrative, 
with  its  patriotic  background,  was  very  attractive  to  the 
Romans;  so  that,  after  Cato  and  his  contemporaries,  we 
find  History  written  by  Varro,  Atticus,  Hortensius,  and 
Cicero  himself,  whose  two  famous  contemporaries,  Julius 
Caesar  and  G.  Sallustius,  reached  a  very  high  degree  of 
eminence.  Sallust,  indeed,  may  be  thought  to  challenge 
Thucydides,  whom  he  imitated,  just  as  Titius  Livius,  in 
the  Augustan  Age,  wrote  almost  as  delightfully  as  had 
Herodotus.  After  him  Tacitus,  in  his  two  remarkable 
works,  the  Annales  and  the  HistoricB,  brought  his- 
torical writing  to  a  climax  of  excellence;  for  after  him 
we    find    only    biographies    like    that    of    Suetonius    on 

^  The  fragments  are  collected  in  a  commentary  by  Bormann  (Bran- 
denburg, 1858). 


154  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  Twelve  Caesars    or   else  epitomes   and  fragmentary 
sketches.* 

In  their  prose-writing  the  Romans  developed,  first 
among  western  peoples,  prose  fiction  in  the  form  of  the 
novel  and  romance,  in  which  they  were  imitated  by  the 
later  Greeks.  But  while  the  Greeks  in  fiction  were  almost 
always  prolix  and  unreal,  the  Romans,  as  might  have 
been  expected  from  their  love  of  the  concrete,  struck  out 
at  a  single  blow,  as  it  were,  the  realistic  novel  in  the  so- 
called  Satira  of  Gaius  Petronius  {d.  66  a.d.),  which  is  won- 
derfully modern  in  its  treatment  of  character  as  well  as 
in  its  sound  criticism  of  life  and  learning.  Only  a  portion 
of  it  remains,  yet  it  is  one  of  the  choicest  fragments  of 
ancient  literature  as  well  as  a  clew  to  much  that  would 
otherwise  be  obscure  in  the  life  and  language  of  the  com- 
mon people.  Lucius  Apuleius  (second  century  a.d.),  of 
Medaura  in  Africa,  represents  better  the  earlier  form  of 
fiction  in  which  short  stories  (generically  known  as  Mi- 
lesians), are  strung  together  by  a  thread  of  plot,  but  are 

*  The  fragments  of  the  Roman  historians  are  collected  by  Peter,  His- 
toricorum  Romanorum  Fragmenta  (Leipzig,  1883).  See  Ubrici,  treatise  on 
the  general  characteristics  of  ancient  history  (BerHn,  1833);  Gerlach, 
Die  Geschichtschreiber  der  Roiner  (Stuttgart,  1855);  ^^^  the  introduction 
to  Mommscn's  history  of  Rome.  On  biography,  see  West,  Roman  Auto- 
biography (New  York,  1901);  Wiese,  De  Vilis  Scriptornm  Romanorum 
(Berlin,  1840);  and  Suringar,  De  Romanorum  Autobiographis  (Leyden, 
1846).  Much  biographical  material  is  found  in  the  form  of  letters  — ■ 
especially  those  of  Cicero,  Pliny,  Seneca,  Symmachus,  St.  Jerome,  St. 
Augustine,  and  Cassiodorus.  See  Roberts,  History  of  Letter-Writing 
(London,   1843). 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN  PERIOD  1 55 

not  as  yet  woven  into  anything  like  a  definite  unity  of 
form.  It  is  odd  that  these  two  writers  are  practically 
the  only  ones  who  in  Roman  literature  have  left  behind 
them  anything  like  completed  works.  The  Greeks  of 
the  same  period  as  Apuleius,  and  later,  poured  forth  a 
vast  number  of  romances/  a  number  of  which  have  been 
preserved.  The  best  of  them  is  the  jEthiopica  by  Helio- 
dorus,  composed  in  the  fourth  century,  and  the  curiously 
symbolistic  novel,  Daphnis  and  CJiloe.  The  author  of 
the  latter  is  unknown,  but  the  book  has  exercised  a  strong 
influence  upon  modern  prose  fiction  from  St.  Pierre 
to  Emile  Zola.  A  collection  of  imag'nary  letters  written 
by  Alciphron,  a  Greek  sophist  of  the  second  century  a.d., 
give  us  very  piquant  pictures  of  Bohemian  life  in  Athens. 
In  addition  to  these  various  forms  of  pure  literature, 
there  were  written  Epigrams  of  which  the  master  in  Latin 
is  Martial,  though  the  Romans  seem  to  have  relished  no 
less  the  pointed  lines  of  Plautus  and  Horace  and  Lucan 
in  poetry,  and  the  sententious  aphorisms  of  Seneca  and 
Tacitus  in  prosc.^    These  accorded  well  with  .he  spirit  of 

'  See  Chassang,  Hisloire  du  Roman  (Paris,  1862);  Dunlop,  A  History 
of  Fiction,  last  ed.  (London,  1896);  Salverte,  Lc  Roman  dans  la  Grece 
Ancietme  (Paris,  1894);  Warren,  A  History  of  the  Novel  (New  York,  1895); 
Collignon,  Etiide  sur  Pctrone  (Paris,  1892);  the  Introduction  by  Hilde- 
brand  to  his  edition  of  Apuleius  (Leipzig,  1842);  and  the  Introduction  to 
Peck's  translation  of  the  Cena  Trinialchionis,  2d  ed.  (New  York,  1908). 

^See  Booth,  Epigrams  Ancient  and  Modern,  3d  ed.  (London,  1874); 
and  for  the  rough  and  rather  coarse  epigrams  directed  against  the  emperors, 
see  Bernstein,  Versus  Ludicri  in  Casarcs  Priores  (Halle,  1810). 


156  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

homely  wisdom  that  was  to  the  Romans  what  speculative 
philosophy  was  to  the  Greeks.  So  comedy  of  the  farcical 
type  and  the  cynical  shrewdness  of  the  mimes  were  pre- 
fered  to  tragedy  at  almost  every  period  of  Roman  culture. 
The  truth  is  that  only  on  the  surface  were  the  Romans 
ever  Hellenised  either  in  language  or  in  literature.  In 
language,  highly  educated  men  wrote  in  the  so-called 
Bermo  urbanus,  corresponding  to  the  estilo  culto  of  the 
Castilians.  In  the  easy  converse  of  daily  life,  among  their 
friends  and  intimates,  they  used  a  much  looser  and  less 
formal  sort  of  Latin  —  the  sermo  cotidianus  of  Cicero's 
letters,  for  example.  The  man  in  the  street  spoke  the 
sermo  plebeius,  which  was  nothing  more  than  the  older 
Latin  which  had  at  one  time  been  current  everywhere, 
but  which  now  was  held  by  the  literati  to  be  the  shib- 
boleth of  ignorance.^  As  to  literature,  ornate  orations, 
exquisitely  wrought  lyrics,  learned  epics,  and  carefully 
penned  histories  have  come  down  to  us  bearing  the  impress 
of  Grecian  models;  but  we  know  that  for  the  people  at 
large  there  existed  an  immense  mass  of  popular  composi- 
tions, sometimes  transmitted  orally  and  sometimes  not  — 
nursery  songs,  lines  sung  by  children  at  play,  the  tri- 
umphal chants  of  the  common  soldiery,  as  well  as  fables, 
familiar  letters,  riddles,  and  acrostics.  Against  Terence 
we  must  set  Plautus;   against  the  epic  of  Vergil  we  must 

'  See  Cooper,  op.  cit.,  Introduction;  Olcott,  Studies  in  the  Word  Forma- 
tion of  the  Latin  Inscriptions  (Rome,  1898);  Grandgent,  Vulgar  Latin 
(Boston,  1908)  ;  and  du  Meril,  op.  cit. 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 57 

set  the  satires  of  Horace  and  Persius;  against  the  stately 
prose  of  Cicero  we  must  set  the  slangy  and  ungrammatical 
and  yet  vivid  jargon  which  flew  back  and  forth  between 
Trimalchio's  guests/ 

Again,  Roman  taste  is  seen  in  the  choice  of  those  literary 
forms  which  were  regarded  as  most  admirable.  The 
Greeks  might  hold  tragedy  to  be  the  noblest  form  of 
composition,  but  the  Romans  gave  the  first  place  to  oratory 
and  history,  while  they  enjoyed  the  epic  only  because  (as 
in  the  case  of  the  Mneid)  it  ministered  to  their  pride  of 
nationality.  If  we  look  at  their  philological  studies,  we  shall 
see  that  they  gave  the  preference  to  such  as  were  of  a  practi- 
cal character.  As  early  as  159  B.C.  there  came  to  Rome 
Crates,  the  grammarian  from  Pergamum,-  and,  as  said, 
during  his  stay  he  excited  much  interest  in  theoretical 
grammar  and  linguistic  studies  generally.  Even  earlier 
than  this  time  essays  had  been  written  on  the  ancient 
literature,  partly  to  explain  its  meaning  and  partly  its 
allusions.'  After  Crates  there  was  much  attention  paid 
to  etymology,  and  in  fact,  two  schools  arose,  one  deriving 
Latin  words  from  Greek,  which  was  the  practice  of  Hypsi- 

1  See  Petronius,  chs.  27-78,  translated  as  Trimalchio's  Dinner  by  Peck, 
2d  ed.   (New  York,  1908). 

'  Supra,  p.  1 20. 

'  Lucius  Attius  wrote  a  history  of  Greek  and  Roman  poetry 
(Didascalica),  and  made  some  reforms  in  Roman  orthography,  abandon- 
ing the  use  of  the  letters  z  and  y,  and  denoting  the  quantity  of  a,  e,  and  u 
by  doubhng  them  when  they  were  long,  thereby  imitating  the  usage  in 
other  Itahc  dialects.     See  Boissier,  Le  Poete  Attius  (Paris,  1857). 


158  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

crates  (c.  100  B.C.),  and  the  other  explaining  everything 
on  the  basis  of  Latin  itself.     The  great  name  in  the  latter 
school  is  that  of  M.  Terentius  Varro  (116-28  B.C.),  a  man 
of  prodigious  erudition,  which  caused  him  to  be  styled 
"the  most  learned  of  the  Romans."     Varro  was  one  of 
the  great  scholars  of  all  time,  to  be  compared  with  Era- 
tosthenes and  Aristarchus  among  the  Greeks,  with  Scaliger 
and  Lipsius  just  after  the  Renaissance,  and  with  Momm- 
sen   in   very  recent  years.     Before  giving   any  account, 
however,  of  his  philological  labours,  an  incident  should 
be  mentioned,  the  influence  of  which  has  continued  to 
the  present  day.     In  the  year  80  b.c.  there  came  to  Rome 
a  roving  scholar,  a  native  probably  of  Alexandria.     He 
had  been  trained  both  in  his  native  city  and  at  Pergamum. 
He  had  listened  to  the  disputes  of  the  linguists  of  each 
school,  and  was  well  versed  in  all  their  doctrines.     This 
person,   Dionysius   Thrax,    is   an   admirable  type   of  the 
middleman  who  stands  between  the  creative  mind  and 
the  mind  that  is  entirely  receptive.    Until  his  day,  grammar, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  was  not  so  much  an  art  in  itself 
as  an  adjunct  to  logic  and  philosophy.     Dionysius  Thrax 
made   digests   of   the   lectures  which   he  had  attended, 
putting   down  the  results  in  a  didactic  manner.     This 
was  precisely  what  most  appealed  to  the  Roman  mind  — 
something  definite,  concrete,  and  dogmatic.     One  treatise 
of  Dionysius,  his  TeT^?;  Tpafx/xaTiK'^,  set  forth  certain  prin- 
ciples which  made  it  the  first  treatise  on  Formal  Grammar. 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 59 

Translated  into  Latin,  it  became  a  standard  text-book, 
and  from  it  there  have  come  to  us  the  technical  terms  of 
formal  grammar  employed  in  modern  languages.^ 

A  Roman  contemporary  of  this  Greek  grammarian  was 
L.  ^lius  Prseconinus  Stilo,  of  whom  we  have  notices  in 
many  of  the  later  writers,  although  even  fragments  of  his 
writings  do  not  remain.  He  was  the  first  Roman  to 
deserve  the  name  of  philologist.  He  was  of  knightly 
rank,  an  aristocrat  by  birth  and  training,  and  had  a  gift 
of  natural  oratory;  though  he  sought  no  political  office, 
and  merely  wrote  orations  for  his  friends,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Greek  orators.  He  was  a  type  of  the  patrician 
scholar,  and  had  the  true  patrician's  taste  for  antiquarian 
knowledge.  Therefore  he  came  to  be  a  profoundly  learned 
authority  upon  everything  relating  to  ancient  Latin,  both 
in  the  matter  of  antiquities  and  in  the  usages  of  the  earlier 
language.     Cicero  styles  him  "  most  learned  in  Grecian 

^  In  the  fourth  century  the  book  was  translated  into  Armenian,  while 
the  original  was  somewhat  curtailed.  The  Armenian  version  has  given 
us  back  five  more  chapters  than  any  of  the  later  Greek  manuscripts  con- 
tain. See  the  edition  by  Uhlig  (Leipzig,  1883);  and  the  French  trans- 
lation by  Cierbied,  Memoires  et  Dissertations  (Paris,  1824).  Cf.  also 
Grafenhan,  op.  cit.  i.  p.  402  foil.,  and  the  account  in  Steinthal,  op.  cit. 
A  list  of  these  grammatical  terms  in  Greek,  with  their  Latin  equivalents, 
may  be  found  in  Gudeman,  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Classical  Philology, 
3d ed.  pp.  30-32.  Thus,  wehave  Svofj-a  =  jiomen," noun";  -TTQa-is^  casust 
"case";  XP"""^  =  tempiis,  "tense";  ffv{vyia  =  conjugatio,  "conjugation"; 
genus,  "gender";  i-yKKiaii  =  modus,  "mood";  irpoaQiroi'  =  persona,  "per- 
son"; &pi.0fj-os=  nu7nerus,  "number."  As  the  ablative  case  does  not  ap- 
pear in  Greek,  it  was  first  called  "the  Latin  case"  {casus  Latinus),  and  by 
Quintilian,  ablativus. 


l6o  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

literature  as  well  as  in  Latin,"  while  his  pupil,  Varro, 
speaks  of  him  as  litteris  ornatissimus  memoria  nostra. 
He  was  undoubtedly  the  first  of  the  Romans  who  had  any 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  classical  philologist.  It  was  very 
likely  he  who  took  up  the  teachings  of  Dionysius  Thrax 
and  applied  them  to  Latin,  thus  becoming  the  First  of 
the  Roman  Grammarians.  Likewise,  he  wrote  commen- 
taries on  such  ancient  works  as  the  Carmina  Saliorum  and 
on  the  Twelve  Tables.  Gudeman  believes  that  he  even 
prepared  an  edition  of  Plautus  with  critical  signs;  yet  of 
this  last  there  is  no  direct  evidence. 

His  greatest  fame  comes  from  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
teacher  of  Marcus  Terentius  Varro,  the  most  learned,  the 
most  indefatigable,  and  the  most  prolific  of  any  Roman 
scholar  who  ever  lived.  In  a  later  century  St.  Augustine 
says  of  him:  "  Varro  had  read  so  much  that  we  ought  to 
feel  surprised  that  he  found  time  to  write  anything;  and 
he  wrote  so  much  that  we  can  hardly  believe  that  any  one 
could  find  time  to  read  all  that  he  composed."  In  fact, 
he  wrote  at  least  six  hundred.^ 

Varro  was,  however,  no  mere  recluse.  He  commanded 
a  squadron  in  the  war  against  Mithradates;  he  served  as 
a  general  of  Pompey  in  Spain,  and  though  he  was  com- 
pelled to  surrender  his  troops  to  Caesar,  he  escaped  him- 
self and  remained  steadfast  to  the  aristocratic  cause  until 

•  So  Auson.  Prof.  Burd,  xx.  20.  Cf.  Boissier,  Etudes  sur  M.  T.  Varron 
(Paris,  1 861). 


THE   GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  l6l 

the  final  battle  at  Pharsalus.  Since  resistance  to  the  dic- 
tator was  then  useless,  Varro  returned  to  Rome,  expecting 
perhaps  to  be  put  to  death.  But  the  high-minded  Caesar, 
who  was  himself  a  scholar,  and  wished  to  promote  scholar- 
ship, received  Varro  most  graciously,  and  gave  him  the 
agreeable  task  of  founding  a  great  public  library  in  Rome/ 
This  was  the  more  pleasing,  since  Varro's  own  splendid 
private  library  had  been  destroyed  in  the  Civil  Wars,  just 
as  his  beautiful  villa  at  Casinum  had  been  plundered  and 
defiled  by  Antony,  —  a  scene  which  Cicero  has  depicted 
with  almost  hideous  realism  in  his  second  Philippic  oration. 
Out  of  Varro's  encyclopedic  works,  not  many  remain, 
partly  because  they  were  too  numerous,  and  partly  be- 
cause it  was  the  habit  of  Roman  scholars  to  condense  and 
abridge  long  works,  taking  from  them  whatever  seemed 
most  interesting.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  have  the 
most  valuable  part  of  Li\7'  only  in  the  form  of  an  epitome; 
that  the  greater  portion  of  Petronius  has  been  lost,  and 
that  of  Varro's  six  hundred  or  more  works  there  re- 
main to  us  only  his  treatise  on  husbandry  ( De  Re  Riistica) , 

'  Suetonius,  Julius,  44.  Varro  never  completed  the  task  which  had 
been  assigned  him.  The  first  pubhc  hbrary  was  opened  by  the  private 
munificence  of  Asinius  Pollio  (34  B.C.).  At  last,  five  imperial  libraries, 
of  which  two  are  the  most  celebrated,  —  first  that  founded  by  Tiberius 
and  famous  for  its  complete  collection  of  State  papers  and  pubhc  docu- 
ments, and  the  Bibliotheca  Traiana,  the  most  magnificent  of  all,  since 
most  of  the  books  in  it  were  written  or  inscribed  upon  thin  leaves  of  ivory. 
See  Lanciani,  Ancient  Rome  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Excavations,  pp.  178-205 
(Boston,  1889). 

M 


1 62  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

a  number  of  quotations  and  references  scattered  through- 
out the  pages  of  Latin  literature,  and  finally,  a  very  much 
corrupted  collection  of  six  books  taken  from  his  great 
treatise  on  the  Latin  language  {De  Lingua  Latino)  — 
about  one-quarter  of  the  whole/  The  book  which  gave 
him  his  highest  reputation  among  the  ancients,  who  con- 
sidered it  his  masterpiece,  has  practically  perished  and,  in 
truth,  it  probably  did  not  survive  the  end  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury A.D.  This  was  his  Antiquitatum  Libri,  divided  into 
forty-one  books,  and  crowded  with  the  vast  knowledge 
which  its  author  had  acquired  by  years  and  years  of 
patient  reading  and  research.  To  be  noted  also  are  his 
Sententice,  a  collection  of  pithy  sayings,  much  quoted  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  his  SaturcB  written  in  a  mixture  of 
prose  and  verse  {Menippece). 

It  is  the  treatise  on  the  Latin  language  (one  part  of 
which  was  dedicated  to  Cicero)  that  is  most  interesting, 
both  because  of  the  subject  itself  and  because  we  still 
possess  a  portion  of  the  book.  The  treatise  seems  to 
have  been  arranged  in  three  great  divisions.  The  first 
seven  books  dealt  with  the  origin  of  words  and  phrases, 
and  was,  in  fact,  a  history  of  the  Latin  language  largely 
from  the  point  of  view  of  etymologists.^  The  next  six 
books  were  grarmnatical,^  relating  chiefly  to  the  forms  and 

'Edited  by  A.  Spengel  (Berlin,  1885). 

^  Supra,  p.  146  foU. 

^  In  these  books  Varro  examines  the  natural  and  arbitrary  divisions 
in  nouns  and  verbs.  Words  are  "  naturally  "  divided  according  to  anal- 
ogy, and  "  arbitrarily  "  divided  according  to  anomaly. 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 63 

inflection  of  nouns  and  verbs,  since  Varro  regarded  these 
as  the  only  two  real  parts  of  speech  —  in  this  respect 
resembling  the  Semitic  grammarians.  The  last  eleven 
books  have  to  do  with  the  laws  of  syntax  {ut  verba  inter 
se  coniungantur) .  The  six  books  which  we  still  possess 
are,  as  is  seen  above,  partly  etymological  and  partly  re- 
lating to  inflections.  They  give  us  incidentally  a  great 
deal  of  information  about  curious  points  of  ancient  usage 
at  Rome,  and  Varro  shows  wisdom  in  not  attempting  to 
derive  the  vocabulary  of  his  language  from  the  Greek. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  etymologises  entirely  by  ear,  so 
that  many  of  his  derivations  are  as  absurd  as  those  which 
were  prevalent  in  the  Middle  Ages.^ 

This  monumental  work,  even  in  the  scanty  fragments 
which  remain  to  us,  has  always  been  studied  with  great 
profit,  especially  the  purely  lexical  portion  (v-vii).  Its 
arrangement  is  not  alphabetical,  but  the  words  that 
Varro  treats  in  it  are  taken  up  by  groups  based  upon  their 
association  with  one  another.  Thus  the  author  begins 
the  fifth  book  (after  a  short  introduction)  with  names  re- 
lating to  places,  discussing  first  the  word  locus  and  its 
derivatives  locare,  locarium,  and  so  forth,  following  this 
by  a  division  of  places  in  heaven  and  places  on  earth. 
Turning  to  the  former,  he  regards  caelum  as  the  antith- 

1  Thus  Varro  says  that  canis  is  derived  from  cano  because  dogs  give 
signals  (cancre)  at  night ;  that  stags  are  called  cervi  from  gero  (quasi 
cero),  because  they  carry  huge  antlers ;  and  that  dives  is  from  divus, 
because  a  rich  man  is  like  a  god  in  wanting  nothing. 


164  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

esis  to  terra  and  its  partial  synonym  humus,  which  sug- 
gests humor,  humidus,  udus,  sudor,  and  other  words  relat- 
ing to  moisture,  as  puteus  (a  well),  lacus,  palus,  stagnum, 
fluvius,  Jlumen,  stillicidium,  amnis.  The  sound  of  amnis 
suggests  to  him  the  place-names,  Interamna,  Antemnae, 
and  Anio.  Because  the  Anio  empties  into  the  Tiber,  he 
discusses  the  etymology  of  Tiberis.  And  so  one  word 
suggests  another,  and  he  takes  each  of  them  and  defines 
it,  giving  the  etymology  and  citing  from  both  poets  and 
prose-writers  in  illustration  of  the  various  uses  of  the 
word  or  name  in  question.  In  this  way  we  receive  the 
impression  of  a  familiar,  off-hand  lecture,  and  such  seems 
to  have  been  his  intention  ;  though  K.  O.  Miiller 
has  set  forth  an  hypothesis  that  in  the  De  Lingua 
Latina  we  have  only  the  rough  unfinished  notes  of  a  book 
rather  than  the  book  itself  in  its  completed  form.^ 

Whatever  one  may  say  of  Varro's  rather  childish  ety- 
mologies, he  does  give  the  explanation  which  the  Romans 
themselves  were  wont  to  hold  as  to  the  origin  of  certain 
words.  But  his  citations  from  authors  now  lost,  and  the 
occasionally  full  explanations  which  he  gives  of  matters 
of  usage  and  law,  are  a  source  of  information  to  which 
scholars  will  always  resort.  On  such  matters,  Varro's 
position  as  the  most  learned  of  the  Romans  gives  his 
utterances  the  weight  of  unimpeachable  authority. 

1  It  may  be  that  Varro  published  an  epitome  of  the  work  in  nine 
books.     See  Roth,  Leben  Varros  (Basle,  1857). 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 65 

Especially  important  was  his  labour  as  a  critic  of  texts, 
since  it  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  Plautine  Canon. 
It  is  the  one  instance  of  such  a  canon  created  among  the 
Romans  and  lasting  to  the  present  time.  In  his  treatise 
on  the  comedies  of  Plautus,  he  appears  to  have  discussed 
with  much  acumen  the  question  as  to  which  comedies 
bearing  the  name  of  Plautus  were  genuine  and  which 
were  spurious.  As  is  well  known,  the  number  of  such 
plays  had  become  very  great,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
name  Plautina  was  used  as  a  generic  term  for  a  certain 
type  oi  fahula  palliala;  ^  and  because  the  plays  of  Plautus 
had  become  confused  with  those  of  another  writer,  Plau- 
tius.  Hence  Gellius  says  that,  in  all,  130  comedies  were 
generally  styled  "Plautine."  To  the  separation  of  the 
true  from  the  false  among  these,  Varro  set  himself  to  work, 
using  both  the  traditional  information  that  had  descended 
to  his  time,  and  also  the  texts  which  he  compared,  col- 
lated, and  criticised  with  great  acuteness.  The  number 
of  genuine  plays  he  set  at  twenty-one.  The  general 
acceptance  of  his  dictum  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  of  the 
whole  list  of  130,  only  the  tw enty -one  fab ulae  Varronianae 
have  survived  to  modem  times,  one  of  them,  the  Vidularia, 
having  been  practically  lost  during  the  Middle  Ages.^ 

Glossography    flourished    in    Rome,    though    it   was 

1  Gellius,  iii.  3. 

2  See  Ritschl,  0/'!«c;</a,  ii.  (1868);  Neiie  Plaiitinische  E.rcMr^e  (Leipzig, 
1869) ;  and  on  the  lost  Vidularia,  Leo,  De  Vidularia  PlaiUi  (Gottingen, 
1895)- 


l66  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

almost  wholly  of  a  lexical  and  grammatical  character. 
During  the  Ciceronian,  x\ugustan,  and  Silver  Ages  it 
served  to  explain  and  illustrate  the  meaning  of  archaic 
Latin  and  also  the  plebeian  form  of  speech.  The  dis- 
tinguished glossographers  Praeconinus  Stilo  and  Aure- 
lius  Opilius  created  a  scientific  basis  for  the  study  of 
the  Latin  language  by  going  back  to  the  oldest  records 
and  studying  them.  The  results  of  their  work  and  that 
of  their  contemporaries  have  in  many  cases  come  down 
to  us  in  special  glossaria  (e.g.  to  Plautus,  Terence, 
Vergil,  Sidonius,  and  others),  from  seven  of  which  Cardi- 
nal Mai,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  compiled  his  great 
Glossarium  Vetus.^  Roman  grammarians  and  critics  early 
began  to  edit  Latin  texts.  M.  Antonius  Gnipho  (c.  114 
B.C.)  published  commentaries  on  the  Annales  of  Ennius. 
Cicero  (or  his  brother  Quintus)  published  an  edition 
of  Lucretius.^ 

It  is  unfortunate  that  no  exact  details  concerning  the 
Roman  criticism  of  texts  have  come  down  to  us.  Most 
Roman  scholars  appear  to  have  confined  themselves  to 
the  writing  of  marginal  glosses.  They  distinguish  the 
various  processes:  emendalio,  disiinctio,  and  adnotatio, 
which  last  word  means  the  adding  of  notes,  these  notes 
being  sometimes  brief  signa,   and  sometimes  brief  com- 

1  See  Lowe,  Prodromus  Corporus  Glossariorutn  Latinorum  (Leipzig, 
1876). 

^  See  Munro,  Lucretius,  Intr.  ii.  pp.  2  foil. 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 67 

mentaries  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word.  Suetonius 
wrote  a  treatise  on  these  notes,  part  of  which  has  come 
down  to  us  written  in  Greek.  He  mentions  twenty-one 
critical  signs,  chiefly  variations  and  combinations  of  the 
obelus,  asterisk,  diple,  antisigma,  and  point  (punctum) ; 
yet  they  appear  to  have  been  used  less  for  textual  than 
for  aesthetic  and  literary  criticism  (/c/jto-i?  or  distinctio), 
for  which  there  were  also  other  symbols  that  Suetonius 
merely  mentions  without  describing.^  To  the  Latin 
critics  is  due  the  so-called  subscriptio,  of  which  one 
hears  a  good  deal  in  the  study  of  manuscripts.  A 
subscriptio  is  a  note  added  to  a  manuscript.  It  usually 
begins  with  the  word  legi  (also  recognovi,  contuli),  fol- 
lowed by  the  name  of  the  reviser,  with  the  date,  place, 
time,  circumstances,  or  other  details  regarding  the  re- 
vision. This  revision  indicated  by  the  subscriptio  is 
usually  not  a  critical  recension  of  the  text,  but  only  a 
sort  of  proof-reading,  i.e.  a  guarantee  of  the  correctness 
of  the  copy  from  an  original.^ 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Romans  paid  considerable 
attention  to  Epigraphy.     Inscribed  stones  on  which  the 

^  E.g.  notae  simplices.  One  of  these  is  of  some  importance  as  being 
a  distinct  addition.  It  is  the  sign  h,  called  alogus,  and  marks  an 
anacoluthon,  or  a  difficult  expression,  such  as  the  aequore  iiisso  A  en, 
X.  444,  so  marked  by  Probus. 

^Subscriptiones  are  found  in  manuscripts  of  all  the  best  Latin 
writers,  including  Caesar,  Cicero,  Vergil,  Horace,  Livy,  Persius,  Martial, 
Quintilian,  Juvenal,  and  Mela.  See  Haase,  De  Lat.  Cod.  MSS.  Sub- 
scriptionibus  (Breslau,  i860). 


1 68  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Greeks  preserved  their  public  documents  were  stored  in 
the  temples  of  every  Hellenic  city,  and  records  were 
hewn  upon  the  walls  and  pediments  and  altars,  so  that, 
as  Hubner  says,  "  the  history  of  a  Greek  city  was  liter- 
ally written  upon  her  stones."  These  inscriptions  were 
frequently  cited  as  documents  by  the  Greek  orators  and 
afterward  by  the  historians,  but  it  was  not  until  the 
Alexandrian  Age  that  regular  collections  of  them  were 
made  by  such  scholars  as  Philochorus  (300  B.C.)  and 
Polemo  (200  B.C.),  who  was  nicknamed  arr]\oK67ra<;  be- 
cause the  study  of  inscriptions  was  a  passion  with  him. 
At  Rome  from  about  50  B.C.  until  200  a.d.  they  are 
quoted  by  the  orators  and  historians,  and  studied  by 
some  of  the  grammarians,  such  as  Varro,  Verrius  Flac- 
cus,^  and  Probus  ^  of  Berytus ;  while  they  are  collected  for 
legal  purposes  by  the  writers  on  Roman  jurisprudence. 

Passing  over  Ateius  Praetextatus  (c.  29  B.C.),  who  was 
called  philologus,^  and  Asconius  Pedianus  (3  a.d.),  the 
well-known  commentator  on  Cicero,  and  the  annalist 
Fenestella  (19  a.d.),  we  come  to  the  next  great  name, 
which  is  that  of  Marcus  Verrius  Flaccus  (c.  10  B.C.),  tutor 
to  the  children  of  Augustus,  and  a  scholar  who  deserves 
especial  mention  for  his  rank  in  both  philological  study 
and  the  general  history  of  education.  Verrius  Flaccus 
may  fairly  be  described  as  the  compiler  of  the  first  Latin 

^  Infra,  p.  169.  ^Ibid. 

^  Suetonius,  Gram.  10. 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 69 

lexicon  ever  written,  though  perhaps  it  might  be  more 
truly  called  an  encyclopaedia.  Its  title  was  De  Verborum 
SignificatUj  written  in  more  than  twenty-four  books.  It 
was  a  lexicon  because  it  defined  and  illustrated  by  citations 
the  words  of  the  Latin  language  in  their  alphabetical 
order.  It  was  an  encyclopaedia  because  it  gave  information 
on  innumerable  topics  concerning  history,  antiquities,  and 
grammar,  and  with  exhaustive  and  elaborate  quotations 
from  every  class  of  writers  —  poets,  jurists,  and  historians, 
as  well  as  from  ancient  legal  documents,  rituals,  and 
sacred  formulae.  This  great  work  in  its  original  form  is 
now  lost.  In  the  second  century  a.d.  it  was  abridged  by 
a  grammarian,  Pompeius  Festus,  in  an  arbitrary  fashion 
which  allowed  only  one  book  to  each  of  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet,  and  this  abridgment  by  Festus  was  itself  com- 
pressed into  a  still  briefer  epitome  by  the  monk  Paulus 
or  Paul  Wamefrid,  usually  spoken  of  as  Paulus  Diaconus. 
The  epitome  by  Paulus,  dedicated  to  Charlemagne  (c.  800 
A.D.),  is  now  the  principal  source  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  original  treatise;  but  many  fragments  of  the  notes  by 
Festus  remain,  while  Gellius  here  and  there  cites  exten- 
sive passages  at  first  hand  from  Verrius.  These  show 
how  the  original  treatise  was  mutilated  both  by  Festus 
and  by  Paulus.^  Yet  badly  as  the  remains  of  Verrius 
WTre  treated,  they  are  perhaps  the  most  valuable  source 
of  information  remaining  for  the  study  at  second  hand  of 

^  All  the  remains  have  been  edited  by  The\vrewk  de  Ponor  (Prague,  1891). 


lyo  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

archaic  Latin  and  for  curious  information  on  the  subject 
of  Roman  antiquities.^ 

Verrius  is  to  be  remembered  for  another  thing  —  his 
system  of  education,  which  for  the  first  time  among  the 
Romans  appealed  to  a  spirit  of  emulation  and  ambition 
rather  than  to  the  dread  of  punishment.  In  teaching, 
Verrius  offered  prizes  for  proficiency  in  study,  and  laid 
stress  upon  the  reward  of  merit  rather  than  upon  the 
chastisement  of  neglect  and  ignorance.^ 

It  was  at  this  time,  after  the  beginning  of  the  first  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  that  the  Greek  and  Roman  learning  be- 
came so  blended  as  to  be  thereafter,  in  the  sphere  of  the 
higher  studies,  substantially  a  single  field.  Henceforth  all 
Romans  of  cultivation  were  not  only  familiar  with  Greek 
and  with  its  literature,  but  the  Greek  world  had  become 
largely  Romanised  in  its  institutions  and  in  many  of  its 
customs,  Greeks  flocked  to  Rome  in  such  great  numbers 
that  we  find  Juvenal,  a  little  later,  complaining  that  the 
Roman  capital  had  become  a  Greek  city.  Both  languages 
were  spoken  side  by  side;  Romans  wrote  in  Greek  or  in 
Latin  as  they  chose;  the  pages  of  their  most  familiar  and 
intimate  compositions  (the  letters  of  Cicero,  for  example) 
were  studded  with  Greek  phrases  and  allusions;  while 
the  Greeks,  though  they  never  took  so  kindly  to  the  Roman 
speech,  busied  themselves  in  reading  and  writing  Roman 

^  See  the  chapter  on  Verrius  Flaccus  by  Nettleship  in  his  Essays  in 
Latin  Literature,  pp.  201-247  (Oxford,  1885). 
2  Suetonius,  Gram.  17. 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  171 

history  and  in  the  scientific  study  of  Roman  institutions. 
Dionysius  of  Halicarnassu  wrote  of  the  archaeology  of 
Rome.  Plutarch,  that  remarkable  master  of  literary 
portraiture,  found  parallels  in  the  lives  of  Greeks 
and  Romans,  and  in  his  Ama  'Pw/xat/c?;'  investigated  the 
meaning  of  Roman  customs.  One  of  the  best-known 
Roman  historians  and  scholars,  Gaius  Suetonius  Tran- 
quillus,  composed  partly  in  Greek  and  partly  in  Latin  his 
learned  summaries  of  the  usages  of  both  peoples.^  The 
intellectual  unity  of  Hellas  and  Rome  became  clearly 
visible  in  the  system  of  education  now  finally  accepted 
by  the  Romans,  uniting  as  it  did  the  early  theory  of 
the  Latin  people  with  that  of  the  more  highly  intellectual 
Greeks.  As  Roman  thought  and  literature  in  this  period 
grew  more  and  more  academic,  it  is  proper  here  to 
summarise  the  principal  features  of  the  Graeco-Roman 
Educational  System,  as  giving  a  general  conspectus  of  the 
progress  of  learning  in  the  ancient  world. 

The  Roman  training,  as  a  whole,  may  be  described  as 
a  Greek  structure  on  a  Latin  foundation.  The  elementary 
part  of  it  is  native ;    the  more  purely  scientific  part  of  it  is 

'  Suetonius  is  best  known  for  his  biographies  of  the  Twelve  Caesars ; 
yet  he  wrote  many  treatises,  chiefly  on  antiquarian  subjects,  such  as  the 
names  of  articles  of  clothing,  the  origin  and  early  import  of  imprecations 
and  words  of  abuse,  an  account  of  celebrated  courtesans,  a  manual  of 
court  etiquette,  and  a  collection  of  miscellanies  in  ten  books.  The  frag- 
ments of  these  lost  treatises  are  edited  by  Reifferscheid  (Leipzig,  i860). 
It  is  not  known  which  of  them  were  written  in  Latin  and  which  in  Greek. 
See  the  preface  to  the  edition  by  Roth  (Leipzig,  1886). 


172  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

foreign.  This  represents,  of  course,  the  history  of  Roman 
education,  i-n  which  simpler  forms  were  developed  before 
the  Greek  influence  had  been  felt  at  Rome;  while  the 
scientific  features  were  introduced  after  the  time  of  Livius 
Andronicus  and  Ennius.  In  other  words  (to  use  modern 
terms),  the  common-school  system  at  Rome  was  Roman; 
the  secondary  and  higher  education  were  Greek.  The 
very  names  given  at  Rome  to  the  three  classes  of  teachers 
were  most  significant.  The  elementary  teacher  is  called 
by  a  Latin  name  {lilterator  or  magister  litter arius) ;  while 
both  classes  of  advanced  teachers  had  titles  borrowed 
from  the  Greek  (grammaticus,  rhetor). 

In  early  Rome,  education  was  regarded  as  important, 
though  it  was  not  obligatory  by  law,  as  it  was  at  Athens 
and  in  other  Greek  States.  Schools  were  few.  Most 
fathers  taught  their  own  sons  at  home.  This  in  itself 
implies  that  the  teaching  was  very  simple  and  of  a  utili- 
tarian character.  Reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  the 
memorising  of  the  Twelve  Tables  comprised  nearly  every- 
thing that  was  taught  in  the  elementary  schools  after 
these  had  been  established  in  the  fourth  or  fifth  century 
B.c.^  Plutarch's  statement  ^  that  Spurius  Carvilius  was 
the  first  person  to  open  a  school  at  Rome  (231  B.C.)  must 
be  understood  as  referring  to  the  secondary  schools  alone. 
In  the  elementary  schools  the  course,  as  stated  above, 

1  Livy,  iii.  44  ;  v.  44  ;  vi.  25. 
*  Quaesiiones  Romanae,  59. 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN  PERIOD  1 73 

was  one  of  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  Reading 
was  made  attractive  at  first  by  using  ivory  letters  and  other 
devices.  Writing  lessons  were  given  on  ^^  ax  tablets  ruled 
with  lines.  Arithmetic  was  regarded  as  extremely  im- 
portant, though  it  was  not  pursued  much  further  than 
addition,  subtraction,  multiplication,  and  division.  Great 
stress  was  laid  on  mental  arithmetic,  which  consisted  of  a 
rigid  drill  in  calculation  on  the  fingers  up  to  sums  of 
four  and  five  places  of  figures;  while  complicated  prob- 
lems were  solved  by  means  of  the  abacus  or  calculating 
board.  Fractions  were  viewed  as  very  difiicult.  The 
Roman  system  of  reckoning  was  originally  duodecimal 
(by  twelves),  but  later  decimal  (by  tens).  Boys  of  wealthy 
families,  after  finishing  their  elementary  studies,  were  sent 
to  the  grammar  school,  where  they  received  instruction  in 
the  first  principles  of  a  liberal  training  {eniditio  liberalis)} 
The  chief  object  which  the  grammaiicus  had  in  mind  was 
to  impart  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
poets,  this  knowledge  covering  not  only  purely  literary 
discussions  of  style  and  metre,  but  also  the  subject-matter, 
such  as  historical  topics,  geography,  mythology,  and 
ethics.2  Long  passages  of  favourite  authors  were  learned 
by  heart,  and  writing  verse  was  also  practised.  Late  in 
the  first  century  B.C.  there  were  added  the  subjects  of 
music  and  geometry.^ 

^  Cicero,  Tusc.  ii.  11,  27. 

'  Cicero,  In  Verrem,  i.  18,  47  ;  Quintilian,  i.  4. 

»  Seneca,  Epist.  88,  9  ;  Suetonius,  Tih.  3. 


174  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

History  and  geography  were,  as  time  went  on,  more 
and  more  valued  as  a  part  of  a  liberal  education.  We 
have  seen  that  even  about  the  beginning  of  the  Alex- 
andrian Period,  Descriptive  Geography  took  definite  shape 
and  form.  It  was  then  that  Scylax,  a  Carian  Greek, 
sailed  down  the  Indus  and  around  through  the  Indian 
Ocean  and  the  Red  Sea,  occupying  thirty  months  for  the 
voyage.  His  name  is  attached  to  a  so-called  Periplus, 
which,  however,  could  not  possibly  have  been  written  by 
him.^  A  little  later,  Eudoxus  of  Canidus  proved  mathe- 
matically the  spherical  shape  of  the  earth,  and  first 
divided  the  globe  into  five  zones.  The  campaigns  of 
Alexander  the  Great  laid  the  western  and  southern  parts 
of  Asia  open  to  Greek  research.  Physical  geography 
was  developed  by  the  Ptolemies  in  their  commercial 
expeditions;  and  all  geographical  knowledge,  so  far  as  it 
then  existed,  was  used  with  scientific  skill  by  the  Alex- 
andrians, such  as  Eratosthenes,  Hipparchus  of  Nicaea, 
and  Posidoniusof  Apamea  (90  B.C.).  We  have  only  frag- 
ments, however,  of  most  of  these  geographers.  A  very 
great  and  enduring  work  is  that  of  Strabo  of  Amasia 
(c.  20  A.D.),  which  combines  descriptive  geography  with 
ethnology.  To  what  the  Greeks  had  learned  he  added 
a  knowledge  of  the  Roman  conquests.  And  though  his 
historical  work  is  lost,  his  treatise  on  geography 
(Tr}(oypa(^i,KOb)  in  seventeen  books  is  the  most  complete 

^  See  the  edition  by  Fabricius  (Leipzig,  1883);  and  Antichan,  op.  cit. 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 75 

geographical  treatise  of  antiquity.  It  is,  indeed,  very  far 
from  a  dry  and  monotonous  screed.  It  was  meant  to  be 
read,  and  it  is  very  readable,  so  that  it  has  been  called 
a  sort  of  political  or  historical  geography.  Napoleon 
caused  it  to  be  rendered  into  French,  with  notes.^  During 
the  wars  in  Gaul  and  the  East,  maps  (tabulae)  were 
prepared  at  Rome  and  displayed  in  the  porticos,  where 
all  could  see  them  and  understand  the  despatches  which 
came  from  the  Roman  armies.  M.  Vipsanius  Agrippa, 
by  order  of  Augustus  Caesar,  made  a  great  map,  on 
which  were  indicated  the  distances  between  important 
places  throughout  the  Roman  Empire.  This  map  was 
the  origin  of  modern  maps,  and  contributed  greatly  to 
our  knowledge  of  Topography.  It  was  often  copied  in 
whole  or  in  part,  and  from  it  were  made  the  so-called 
Itineraria,  or  maps  intended  for  particular  expeditions. 
The  most  interesting  of  such  now  in  existence  is  the  so- 
called  tabula  Peutingeriana,  preserved  in  Vienna.  Its 
date  is  about  250  a.d.,  and  it  consisted  of  twelve  slips  of 
parchment  which  originally  marked  out  all  the  world  as 
known  to  the  Romans.  At  present  the  pieces  which  should 
contain  Spain  and  Britain  are  lost  with  the  exception 
of  a  part  of  Kent.^ 

Rivalling    Strabo  in  science    but    not   equalling  him 

^  5  vols.  (Paris,  1805-19).  See  the  Introduction  by  Tozer  to  his 
English  edition  of  selections  (Oxford,  1893). 

"^  For  a  representation  of  this  geographical  curiosity,  see  the  Atlas 
Anliqims  of  Justus  Perthes  (Gotha,  1893). 


176  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

in  interest  or  breadth  of  knowledge,  the  Alexandrian 
astronomer,  Claudius  Ptolemseus,  made  lists  (c.  150  a.d.) 
of  places,  with  their  latitude  and  longitude,  and  an  atlas 
—  the  first  known  —  which  shows  the  Indian  Ocean  as  a 
closed  sea.  After  this  time  there  is  nothing  novel  in 
geography  and  topography  except  the  great  work  of 
Pausanias  (c.  175  a.d.),  who  wrote  an  itinerary 
(ne/3i?77?7cri«?)  of  Greece  in  ten  books,^  which  is  an 
invaluable  study  of  Hellenic  topography.  Pomponius 
Mela,  a  native  of  Spain,  composed  a  clear  and  concise 
account  of  the  world  as  known  to  the  Romans  of  his 
time.'  At  the  end  of  the  Graeco-Roman  Period, 
Stephanus  of  Byzantium  compiled  a  geographical 
dictionary,  of  which  the  substance  is  taken  from  older 
and  better  writers;  and  in  the  sixth  century,  one  Cosmus 
described  India  in  a  book  where  occurs  for  the  first  time 
the  name  of  China  (Sinarum  Regnum). 

After  completing  his  studies  under  the  grammaticus,  a 
Roman  was  held  to  have  received  a  fairly  complete  edu- 
cation. But  such  as  were  desirous  of  more  special  and 
scientific  teaching  had  their  choice  between  the  schools  of 
the  rhetors  and   the  universities  —  at   Athens,   Rhodes, 

'Translated  with  a  commentary  by  Frazer,  6  vols.  (Oxford,  1898). 

^  See  Frick,  Pomponius  Mela  und  seine  Chorographie  (Leipzig,  1880). 
The  remains  of  the  minor  Greek  geographers  are  edited  by  Miiller,  2 
vols.  (Paris,  1882);  those  of  the  Latin  geographers  by  Reise  (Frankfort, 
1878).  For  a  study  of  early  cartography,  see  Nordenskjold,  Periplus 
(Stockholm,  1897). 


THE    GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  177 

Alexandria,  or  Pergamiim,  or  Massilia.^  The  schools  of 
the  rhetors  were  more  immediately  directed  to  rhetorical 
teaching  so  as  to  fit  the  student  for  public  life  as  an  orator 
and  statesman.  Here  was  taken  up  the  study  of  prose, 
beginning  with  the  simple  narratio,  passing  on  to  the 
declamatio  or  suasoria,  and  ending  with  the  controversia, 
which  had  to  do  with  legal  points  and  complicated  ques- 
tions of  practical  life.  In  all  this  there  was  nothing  to 
appeal  to  that  numerous  class  of  students  who,  setting 
aside  any  political  or  legal  ambition,  desired  to  cultivate 
as  specialists  the  field  of  the  natural  sciences,  of  pure 
mathematics,  of  medicine,  of  philosophy,  or  of  linguistics. 
If  these  persons  remained  in  Rome,  they  could  carry  on 
their  work  only  by  employing  at  great  expense  the  services 
of  a  private  instructor  in  the  person  of  some  learned 
Greek.^  Thus  Cicero,  when  a  boy,  had  in  his  father's 
house  various  Greek  tutors,  among  them  the  celebrated 
Archias  of  Antioch,  while  only  one  of  his  masters  (Quintus 
/Elius)    was   a   Roman   bom.     Later,  he   studied   under 

*  See  supra,  pp.  88-125. 

2  See  Saalfeld,  Der  HeUenismus  hi  Lathtm  (Wolfenbiittel,  1883)  ;  Eck- 
stein, Lateinischer  uiid  Griechischer  Unterricht  (Leipzig,  1887)  ;  Compayre, 
History  of  Paedagogy,  English  translation  (Boston,  18S6)  ;  Clarke,  The 
Education  of  Children  at  Rome  (New  York,  1896)  ;  and  Munroe,  op.  cit. 
Petronius  satirises  the  ineffectiveness  of  private  instruction  (1-4)  when 
the  teacher  was  dependent  on  the  good-will  of  the  student,  and  there- 
fore let  him  choose  advanced  studies  prematurely.  "  Now  as  boys  they 
fool  away  their  time  in  the  schools,  as  young  men  they  are  jeered  at  in 
the  forum,  and  what  is  still  more  disgraceful,  the  thing  which  they  have 
learned  wrong  they  are  ashamed  to  admit  when  they  grow  up." 

N 


178  ■     HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Philo  the  Academic,  while  he  learned  rhetoric  from  Apol- 
lonius  Molo  of  Rhodes  and  trained  himself  in  close  think- 
ing under  Diodotus  the  Stoic.  Then  he  went  to  Athens, 
where  he  attended  the  lectures  of  Antiochus  and  subse- 
quently heard  the  chief  philosophers  and  rhetoricians  of 
Asia.  It  was  his  practice  every  day  to  declaim  in  both 
Greek  and  Latin  with  other  young  men,  so  as  to  acquire 
fluency  and  style.  At  this  time  he  seems  to  have  given 
serious  attention  to  only  one  of  his  own  countrymen,  the 
great  lawyer,  Scaevola. 

The  Roman  theory  of  education  was  fully  set  forth  in 
the  first  century  a.d.  by  M.  Fabius  Quintilianus  (35- 
c.  97  A.D.),  a  very  cultivated  Spaniard  who  lived  and 
taught  at  Rome.  This  was,  indeed,  the  so-called  Period 
of  Spanish  Latinity,  represented  not  only  by  Quintilian 
but  by  the  two  Senecas,^  the  epic  poet  Lucan  and  the 
epigrammatist  Martial.  In  this  same  century,  indeed, 
Rome  had  its  first  foreign  emperor  in  the  person  of  Trajan, 
who  was  a  Spaniard,  bom  near  Seville.  Quintilian's  work 
in  twelve  books  is  entitled  Institutio  Oratoria.  It  gives 
his  view  of  the  complete  training  of  an  orator,  beginning 
with  early  childhood.  He  makes  it  evident  that  to  him, 
as  to  the  Romans  generally,  oratory  is  the  supreme  art. 
The  orator  must  be  trained  in  grammatical  studies,  he 
must  be  a  master  of  language  and  skilled  in  all  the  arts 

1  The  Elder  Seneca  was  a  professional  rhetorician,  and  we  have  from 
his  pen  a  number  of  suasoriae  and  controversiae,  which  are  edited  by 
Kiessling  (Leipzig,  1872),  and  H.  J.  Miiller  (Prague,  1887). 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 79 

of  persuasion;  but  he  must  also  be  much  more  than  this. 
He  must  be  deeply  versed  in  the  learning  of  his  time,  in 
the  history  of  his  own  country,  in  philology,  in  law,  and 
in  science,  in  order  that  as  an  orator  he  may  draw  upon 
an  inexhaustible  store  of  illustration,  allusion,  ornament, 
and  anecdote.  Finally,  he  must  be  a  man  of  exalted 
character,  for  no  oratory  is  truly  effective  unless  it  is 
imbued  with  moral  earnestness  and  absolute  sincerity. 
"The  perfect  orator  is  the  perfect  man."  The  first  book 
of  Quintilian's  treatise  is  peculiarly  interesting  because  in 
it,  speaking  of  the  early  grammatical  training  of  a  child, 
he  discusses  minutely  the  alphabet,  the  parts  of  speech, 
word-changes,  spelling,  punctuation,  barbarisms,  sole- 
cisms, analogy,  the  influence  of  custom,  and  at  last  ety- 
mology. All  these  things  he  illustrates  by  a  number  of 
examples  and  anecdotes,  which  have  been  to  later  genera- 
tions a  treasure-house  of  curious  facts  regarding  the  Latin 
language.  Throughout  the  book  the  tone  is  very  modem, 
and  some  of  his  precepts  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of 
modem  teaching.  Thus,  in  speaking  of  corporal  punish- 
ment in  school,  he  says  very  sensibly :  — 

"  That  boys  should  suffer  corporal  punishment,  even  though  this 
custom  be  common,  I  can  scarcely  allow  ;  in  the  first  place,  because 
it  is  disgraceful  and  a  punishment  fit  only  for  slaves ;  and  in  the 
second  place  because,  if  the  disposition  of  a  boy  is  so  base  as  not 
to  be  affected  by  reproof,  he  will  become  hardened,  hke  the  worst 
of  slaves,  even  to  lashings ;  and  finally,  if  a  person  who  regularly 
has  charge  of  his  tasks  be  with  him,  there  will  be  no  need  of  any 


l8o  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

such  punishment.  .  .  .  Moreover,  after  you  have  cowed  a  boy 
with  blows,  how  are  you  to  treat  him  when  he  grows  to  early 
manhood  when  no  such  threat  can  be  employed,  and  when 
even  more  difficult  studies  must  be  pursued?  Add  to  these  con- 
siderations that  many  things  often  occur  to  boys  while  being 
whipped  which  are  unpleasant  to  mention  and  hkely  afterward 
to  cause  shame  under  the  sway  of  pain  or  terror.  Such  shame 
enervates  and  depresses  the  mind  and  youths  then  avoid  others, 
because  they  have  lost  their  self-respect."  ^ 

Note  also  the  following  brief  dictum :  — 

"Give  me  a  boy  who  is  stimulated  by  praise  and  who  is  down- 
cast when  he  fails.  His  powers  must  be  cultivated  under  the  in- 
fluence of  ambition.  Reproach  will  sting  him  to  the  quick.  Re- 
ward will  incite  him.  In  such  a  boy  I  shall  never  fear  any 
indifference;  nor  will  a  love  of  play  in  boys  displease  me.  It  is  a 
sign  of  vivacity,  and  I  cannot  expect  that  one  who  is  always  dull 
and  spiritless  wiU  be  eager  in  his  studies,  when  he  is  indifferent 
even  to  that  excitement  which  is  natural  to  his  time  of  Ufe.^  .  .  . 
Therefore,  as  early  as  possible,  a  child  must  he  taught  that  he  should 
do  nothing  in  a  harum-scarum  way,  nothing  dishonestly,  and  noth- 
ing without  self-control.  We  must  always  keep  in  mind  the  maxim 
of  Vergil :  'So  important  is  habit  in  the  case  of  the  very  young.'"' 

The  Tenth  Book  sums  up  Quintilian's  general  literary 
criticism  of  the  Roman  authors,  carefully  comparing 
them  with  the  writers  of  like  genres  in  Greek.  This  com- 
parison has  made  the  book  much  read ;  for  the  criticism, 
not  being  that  of  a  bom  Roman,  is  temperate,  impartial, 
and  written  w^ith  a  certain  mellowness  of  tone.     Its  con- 

1  Quintilian,  Inst.  Oral.  i.  3,  14. 

2  Cf.  "All  work  and  no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy." 
*  Adeo  in  teneris  consuescere  multum  est. 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  l8l 

elusions  are  essentially  those  of  modem  times.  Thus  he 
places  the  Roman  epic  poets  not  far  behind  the  epic  poets 
of  Greece,  the  Roman  orators  such  as  Cicero  practically 
on  a  level  with  the  great  orators  of  Athens,  and  he  regards 
satire  as  an  independent  creation  of  Roman  genius.^  His 
own  style  is  marked  by  that  tempered  epigrammatic 
spirit  which  was  characteristic  of  the  time.  Thus  he  says, 
"Though  ambition  is  in  itself  a  fault,  it  is  still  often  the 
source  of  achievement."  "In  almost  every  undertaking, 
experience  counts  for  more  than  theory."  "He  is  equal 
to  any  task  who  believes  himself  to  be  equal  to  it."  "  Noth- 
ing is  trifling  in  our  studies."  "The  pen  is  often  most 
useful  when  it  erases."  "We  do  not  come  to  write 
well  by  writing  quickly,  but  we  come  to  write  quickly  by 
writing  well."  "An  evil  speaker  differs  from  an  evil 
doer  only  in  opportunity."  "It  is  a  full  heart  and  mental 
power  that  make  men  eloquent." 

A  more  famous  piece  of  literary  criticism  had  already 
been  written  (about  20  B.C.)  by  Horace,  and  it  became 
known  to  scholars,  though  not  to  its  author,  as  the 
Ars  Poetica.  It  is  written  in  the  discursive  fashion 
which  Horace  loved;  and  is  full  of  brilliant  lines  which 
embody  the  wisdom  of  a  skilled  writer  and  accomplished 
man  of  the  world.  Such,  for  example,  are  the  following 
sentences  and  phrases.     Each  of  them  contains  a  world 

1  See  Peterson's  edition  of  the  Tenth  Book,  with  his  introduction 
(Oxford,  1891) ;  and  a  separate  edition  of  the  First  Book  by  Fierville 
(Paris,  1890). 


1 82  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

of  keen  observation,  and   some  of  them  belong  to  the 
language  of  universal  criticism :  — 

Purpureus  adsuitur  pannus. 
Difficile  est  proprie  communia  dicere. 
Parturiunt  montes,  nascetur  ridiculus  mus. 
Ne  pueros  coram  populo  Medea  trucidet. 
Scribendi  recte  sapere  est  et  principium  et  fons. 
Ut  pictura  poesis. 
Nescit  vox  missa  reverti. 

Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  once    said   of    Emerson:     "His 

paragraphs  are  full  of  brittle  sentences  which  break  apart, 

and  are  independent  units  like  the  fragments  of  a  coral 

colony."    The  poems  of  Horace   are  also  full  of  these 

"brittle  sentences"  and,  taken  together,  these  sentences 

crystallise  the  body  of  his  doctrines.     The  Ars  Poetica 

lacks  proportion  and  is  ill-knit;  but  the  essence  of  it  is 

an  injunction  to  hard  labour  on  the  part  of  the  man  of 

letters,  to  much  reading,  to  self-criticism,  and  to  a  deep 

knowledge  of  human   life.     Without   these   the  poet  is 

merely  a  declaimer  who  deals  with  words  rather  than 

with  things.^     Very  much  the  same  thought  is  elaborated 

'This  poem  of  Horace  has  been  imitated  in  modem  times  by  the 
Italian  scholar,  Gerolamo  Vida,  in  his  De  Arte  Poetica,  written  in  the 
sixteenth  century  ;  by  Boileau  in  his  Art  Poetique  (1674);  by  Alexander 
Pope  in  his  Essay  on  Criticism  (1711);  and  by  Lord  Byron  in  his  clever 
but  less  serious  Hints  from  Horace.  See  Cook,  The  A  rt  of  Poetry  (Boston, 
1892),  and  Weissenfels  Aesthet.-kritische  Analyse  der  Ars  Poetica 
(Gorlitz,  1880).  The  best  commentary  in  English  is  by  Wilkins  in  his 
edition  of  the  Epistles  of  Horace  (London,  1885).  Cf.  also  supra, 
p.  180. 


THE    GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 83 

by  Persius  Flaccus,  in  the  first  of  his  satires,  which 
ridicules  the  artificial  character  of  the  literary  language 
of  the  day. 

Quintilian  was  a  winning,  graceful  writer;  he  was  also 
a  student  of  language,  and  a  critic  of  literature.  The 
period  in  which  he  lived  and  taught  saw  many  other  at- 
tractive writers,  and  it  saw  also  the  pursuit  of  linguistics 
in  the  form  of  grammar,  and  likewise  an  abundance  of 
sound  literary  criticism.  His  contemporaries  were  the 
Spaniards  already  mentioned,  and  likewise  Tacitus,  the 
historian,  both  Plinys,  Petronius,  Persius,  Juvenal, 
Statius,  Silius  Italicus,  and  Suetonius.  The  teacher  of 
Quintilian  himself,  Q.  Remmius  Palaemon  (c.  35-70  a.d.), 
was  perhaps  the  first  author  of  a  school  grammar  in  the 
modern  sense.  He  distinguished  four  declensions,  and 
his  Ars  Grammatica  (published  c.  70  a.d.)  contained 
rules  which  were  more  rigid  and  less  elastic  than  those  of 
the  early  Roman  grammarians.  Bom  a  slave,  originally 
a  weaver  by  trade,  and  noted  for  his  most  disreputable 
character,  he  was  nevertheless  extremely  popular  as  a 
teacher  because  of  his  remarkable  memory,  his  glib 
speech,  and  his  truly  Roman  gift  for  serving  up  knowledge 
in  set  formulas.^ 

*  See  Marschall,  De  Q.  Remmii  Palmonis  Lihris  GravtmaHcis  (Leipzig, 
1887) ;  also  Suetonius,  Gram.  23.  Cf.  Nettleship's  study  of  Latin 
grammar  among  the  Romans  in  Lectures  and  Essays,  2d  series,  pp.  145- 
171  (Oxford,  1895);  and  K.  Schmidt,  Beiirdge  zur  Geschichle  der  Gram- 
matik  (Halle,  1859). 


184  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Teachers  of  grammar  became  very  numerous  during 
and  after  the  time  of  Quintihan,  and  the  remains  of  their 
treatises  have  been  collected  into  seven  volumes  and  a 
supplement  by  Keil.^  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  only 
a  few  of  these  so-called  grammarians  have  any  genuine 
knowledge  of  their  subject.  They  copy  from  one  another, 
and  this  copying  displays  not  only  their  lack  of  ethics,  but 
their  lack  of  knowledge.  Some  of  the  later  grammarians 
do  not  even  understand  the  teachings  which  they  copy. 
Remmius  Palaemon  is  mainly  responsible  for  having 
made  Vergil  the  centre  of  scholastic  instruction  for  the 
Roman  world,  just  as  Homer  was  for  the  Greek.  After 
the  first  century  a.d.,  the  Roman  grammarians  show  little 
independent  research.  Their  manuals  (known  as  artes) 
were  merely  school-books  relating  to  the  simplest  rules  of 
orthography,  syntax,  and  prosody.  Such  are  the  works 
of  Marius  Victorinus,  Servius,  Charisius,  Diomedes,  and 
Terentianus  Maurus,  this  last  scholar  devoting  his  atten- 
tion to  metres.  Two  grammarians  stand  out  with  de- 
served prominence.  One  of  them  is  ^Elius  Donatus,  who 
lived  in  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  and  was  one  of  St. 
Jerome's  teachers.  Apart  from  his  commentaries  on 
Vergil  and  Terence,  Donatus  wrote  a  treatise  {Ars  Donati 
Grammaiicce)  in  two  parts.  The  first  part  is  called  Ars 
Minor  and  in  it  he  treats  only  of  the  eight  parts  of  speech. 
In  the  other,  called  Ars  Maior,  he  discusses  grammar 

^  Keil,  Grammalici  Latini  (Leipzig,  1855-1880). 


THE    GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 85 

more  elaborately.  The  book  was  so  much  thought  of  as 
a  practical  treatise,  that  it  was  continuously  used  down 
through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  word  Donatus  (in 
Chaucer  "donat")  came  to  be  synonymous  with  the  word 
"grammar,"  just  as  in  English  "a  Webster"  means  a 
dictionary,  and  as  in  French  un  Bottin  means  generically 
a  city  directory.^ 

The  other  Roman  grammarian  whose  work  has  many 
merits  was  Priscianus  of  Constantinople,  who  taught 
Latin  there  in  the  sixth  century  a.d.  After  compiling  a 
number  of  small  grammatical  treatises,  he  published  the 
most  complete  and  systematic  Latin  grammar  that  has 
come  down  to  us  from  antiquity.  It  is  called  Institii- 
tiones  Grammaticae,  and  is  divided  into  eighteen  books. 
Its  importance  is  largely  due  to  its  full  quotations  from 
ancient  literature.'  An  epitome  of  it  by  the  mediaeval 
scholar  Rabanus  Maurus  {c.  776  a.d.)  vied  with  the  work 
of  Donatus  throughout  the  Middle  Ages.^  For  the  general 
principles  of  grammar,  Priscian  drew  largely  on  Apollonius 
Dyscolus,  of  Alexandria,^  who  was  the  founder  of  scien- 
tific syntax  {c.  140  a.d.)  and  of  whom  Priscian  him- 
self said  that  he  was  the  greatest  authority  in  technical 

^  See  Keil,  op.  cit.  iv,  and  Griifenhan,  op.  cit.  iv.  p.  107. 

'  He  quotes  especially  from  Plautus,  Terence,  Cicero,  Sallust,  Vergil, 
Horace,  Ovid,  Lucan,  Persius,  Statius,  and  Juvenal ;  and  less  freely 
from  Cato,  Ennius,  Lucretius,  Catullus,  and  Cassar. 

'  See  infra,  p.  229. 

*  See  Skrzeczka,  Die  Lehre  des  Apollonius  Dyscolus  (1869). 


1 86  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

grammar,  though  in  this  respect  his  son  ^lius  Herodianus 
was  undoubtedly  a  formidable  rival,  dedicating  to  Marcus 
Aurelius  a  work  on  prosody  in  twenty-one  books.  The 
grammar  of  Priscian  was  so  often  copied  that  more 
than  a  thousand  manuscripts  of  it  still  exist. 

Contemporary  with  Quintilian  was  M.  Valerius  Probus 
Ber5rtius,  who  has  been  called  "the  greatest  Roman  phi- 
lologist"; but  like  many  of  the  later  Latin  scholars  his 
work  was  almost  entirely  in  the  field  of  text-criticism, 
with  critical  signs,  as  for  instance  upon  Vergil,  Horace, 
Terence,  Lucretius,  Persius.  He  likewise  wrote  a  treatise 
on  these  symbols.^  It  will  be  observed  that  the  later 
grammarians  were  not  of  Roman  or  of  Italian  birth. 
Thus,  Quintilian  was  a  Spaniard;  Probus  a  Syrian; 
Suetonius  probably  a  Spaniard;  Priscian  a  native  of 
Caesarea  in  Mauretania,  though  he  lived  mainly  in  Con- 
stantinople. This  plainly  shows  us  that  Rome  was  no 
longer  Roman,  but  cosmopolitan.  After  the  Spanish 
Period  of  its  literature  came  the  African  Period,  repre- 
sented by  such  well-known  names  as  Apuleius,  Fronto, 
Tertullian,  and  perhaps  Aulus  Gellius.  The  golden  Latin 
of  the  Ciceronian  and  Augustan  Ages  had  changed  to 
the  "  silver"  and  later  to  the  "  bronze  "  Latinity.  The  small 
group  of  those  who  had  set  the  fashion  in  language  at 
Rome  were  imitated  painfully  enough,  yet  quite  inaccu- 
rately, by  writers  of  foreign  birth.  Of  this  Dr.  F.  T. 
Cooper  has  well  said :  — 

'  Steup,  De  Prohis  Grammaticis  (Jena,  1871). 


THE   GR^CO-ROMAN   PERIOD  1 87 

"There  was  a  growing  proportion  of  writers  on  architecture, 
surveying,  medical  and  veterinary  topics,  gastronomy,  etc.,  whose 
attainments  were  too  meagre  to  enable  them  to  write  correctly, 
however  much  they  wanted  to;  and  their  works  naturally  contained 
a  strong  colouring  of  plebeian  vocabulary.  An  important  influence 
was  also  exerted  by  the  no  less  numerous  class  of  writers  whose 
birthplace  was  outside  of  Italy,  and  whose  speech,  in  spite  of 
education  and  long  residence  at  the  capital,  retained,  to  a  varying 
degree,  traces  of  their  alien  origin.  Even  Livy,  born  in  northern 
Italy,  incurred  censure  for  his  Patavinitas.  Under  the  Empire,  the 
provinces  became  even  more  fertile  than  Rome  itself  in  the  pro- 
duction of  men  of  genius ;  Spain  and  Africa  especially  became 
the  centres  of  veritable  schools  of  literature,  possessing  marked 
characteristics,  which  reacted  strongly  upon  the  Uterature  of 
Rome."  1 

It  is  because  the  people  who  had  received  Roman  citizen- 
ship, though  bom  and  living  outside  of  Italy,  were  anx- 
ious to  acquire  a  correct  use  of  the  Latin  language,  that 
we  find  so  many  grammarians.  The  very  last  of  them  is 
the  Spaniard  Isidorus,  who  died  about  636  a.d.  He  had 
been  Bishop  of  Seville,  and  was  a  man  of  very  wide  read- 
ing, an  eloquent  speaker,  and  one  who  had  been  trained 
in  the  ancient  learning  as  well  as  in  that  of  his  own  time. 
He  never  visited  Rome  until  nearly  twenty  years  before 
his  death,  whither  he  went  to  confer  with  Gregory  the 
Great.  His  grammatical  writings  are  two  in  number, 
relating  to  the  distinctions  and  the  proper  use  of  words. 
He  likewise  wrote  a  collection  of  glosses,  beside  numerous 

1  See  Cooper,  Word  Formation  in  the  Roman  Sermo  Plebeius,  Introduc- 
tion, XXXV  (New  York,  1895). 


1 88  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

treatises  on  historical  and  theological  subjects.  With 
him  ends  the  production  of  grammars  that  show  any 
original  research  or  that  represent  original  sources.  But 
just  as  foreigners  desired  to  know  the  rules  of  the  language 
which  their  masters  spoke,  so  they  also  liked  to  inform 
themselves  on  all  sorts  of  subjects  relating  to  the  earlier 
Roman  history.  Hence  we  have  a  series  of  Encyclo- 
paedists who  supplemented  the  work  of  the  grammarians. 
Varro,  already  mentioned,  was  the  first  of  these,^  and 
from  him  many  succeeding  writers  borrowed.  The  Elder 
Pliny  (23-79  A.D.)  in  his  Historia  Naturalis  had  got 
together  an  enormous  mass  of  "general  information," 
ranging  from  prescriptions  for  the  sick,  to  jewels  worn  by 
fashionable  women.  In  the  second  century,  Aulus  Gel- 
lius  wrote  his  Nodes  Atticae  in  twenty  books,  on  every 
possible  sort  of  subject  —  philosophical,  grammatical,  his- 
torical, and  legal,  —  drawing  upon  many  sources  that  are 
now  unknown  to  us.^  One  may  get  an  idea  of  the  variety 
of  these  scraps  by  a  citation  of  some  of  the  topics ;  as,  for 
instance,  "The  fact  that  Women  at  Rome  do  not  Swear 
by  Hercules  nor  Men  by  Castor";  "That  It  is  More 
Disgraceful  to  be  Damned  with  Faint  Praise  than  to  be 
Bitterly  Rebuked";  "Why  the  Stomach  is  Relaxed  Be- 
cause of  Sudden  Fear";  "Concerning  King  Alexander's 
Horse  which  was  Called  Bucephalus";    "Concerning  the 

1  Supra,  p.  158. 

'See  Ruske,   De  Auli  Gellii  N odium  Atticarum  Fontibus  (Breslau, 
1883).     Best  edition  of  the  Nodes  by  Hertz  (Leipzig,  1886). 


THE    GRiECO-ROMAN  PERIOD  1 89 

Ancient  Sumptuary  Laws";  "Whether  Xenophon  and 
Plato  were  Jealous  or  Ill-disposed  Toward  Each  Other"; 
"Concerning  the  Race  and  Names  of  the  Porcian  Family" ; 
"The  Force  and  Derivation  of  the  Particle  Saltern.'" 
Mainly  grammatical,  but  partly  encyclopaedic,  is  the 
treatise  by  Nonius  Marcellus,  an  African,  in  the  fourth 
century.  He  copied  from  earlier  writers,  and  most  of  all 
perhaps  from  Aulus  Gellius.  His  book,  though  not  in  the 
least  original,  has  a  value  of  its  own  for  what  he  has 
preserved  in  it.^  Similar  works  of  easy  erudition  may  be 
illustrated  by  St.  Jerome's  translation  of  the  Chronicle  of 
Eusebius  (264-  c.  340  a.d.)^  with  additions  which  bring  it 
down  to  the  year  378  a.d.,  and  in  the  same  century  the 
very  interesting  medley  by  the  Graeco-Roman  senator, 
Macrobius,  whose  Saturnalia  in  seven  books  is  crammed 
with  interesting  though  by  no  means  authentic  anecdotes 
and  conversations,  together  with  jokes  and  bits  of  criti- 
cism. The  form  of  the  whole  is  copied  from  the  Banquet 
of  Plato,  and  the  substance  is  derived  from  many  a  source.^ 
A  lively  turn  is  given  to  the  Saturnalia  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  cast  in  the  form  of  table-talk.     The  last  and  almost 

^  De  Compendiosa  Dodrina,  edited  by  L.  Miiller  (Leipzig,  1888),  and 
Lindsay,  (Leipzig,  1903).  See  Nettleship,  Lectures  and  Essays,  pp.  277- 
331  (Oxford,  188s). 

^  St.  Jerome's  rendering  of  the  Scriptures  into  idiomatic  Latin  gave 
following  generations  a  chance  to  study  the  plebeian  speech. 

'  See  Wissowa,  De  Macrobii  Saturnalium  Fontibus  (Breslau,  1888). 
Text  edition  by  Eyssenhardt  (Leipzig,  1893).  There  is  a  good  translation 
of  the  Saturnalia  into  French  by  de  Roson  (Paris). 


190  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  greatest  of  these  encyclopaedic  works  is  that  of  Isi- 
dorus,  called  Origines,  in  twenty  books,  —  an  immense 
survey  of  all  knowledge.  Its  title  is  derived  from  the 
fact  that  it  professes  to  give  explanations  of  the  various 
subjects  of  which  it  treats.  It  is  in  reality  nothing  but  a 
compilation;  yet  this  and  his  other  similar  work,  De 
Natura  Rerum,  were  widely  read  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages  and  furnished  many  a  hint  for  those  who  put  together 
the  Gesta  Romanorum}  It  is  astonishing  how  wide  was 
the  reading  of  Isidorus.  As  Bishop  of  Seville  he  allowed 
his  monks  to  read  nothing  of  the  pagan  compositions 
except  the  grammarians;  but  he  himself  raked  the  litera- 
tures of  Greece  and  Rome,  picking  out  with  almost  a 
journalistic  sense  whatever  was  diverting.  He  was  a  great 
lover  of  books,  having  in  his  library  fourteen  large  book- 
cases, while  his  walls  displayed  the  portraits  of  twenty- 
two  favourite  authors.  Isidorus  was  one  of  the  few 
ecclesiastics  who  in  the  sixth  century  still  retained  a 
knowledge  of  Greek.  With  him,  in  fact,  the  Graeco- 
Roman  Period  had  more  than  reached  its  end.  The 
West  of  Europe  was  yielding  to  new  masters,  Gauls  and 
Goths,  and  Visigoths,  and  Germans;  and  the  Dark  Ages 
had,  in  fact,  begun. 

[In  addition  to  the  other  works  cited  in  the  present  chapter, 
see  Boissier,  La  Fin  du  Paganisme  (Paris,  1891)  ;  id.  La  Religion 

^  See  Dressel,  De  Isidori  Originum  Fontibus  (Turin,  1874),  and  infra, 
pp.  224,  225. 


THE   GRiECO-ROMAN   PERIOD  191 

Romaine  d'Auguste  aux  Antonins  (Paris,  1906)  ;  Michaut,  Le 
Genie  Latin  (Paris,  1904)  ;  Hardie,  Lectures  on  Classical  Subjects 
(London,  1903)  ;  Duff,  A  Literary  History  of  Rome,  pp.  664-670 
(London,  1909)  ;  Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr,  A  History  of  Roman 
Literature,  ii.  (London,  1892)  ;  Kortiim,  Geschichtliche  Forschungen 
(Leipzig,  1863)  ;  Zingerle,  Zu  S pater n  Latein.  Dichtern  (Innsbruck, 
1873) ;  Arbenz,  Die  Schriftstellerei  in  Rom  ziir  Zeit  der  Kaiser  (Basle, 
1877)  ;  Nettleship,  Transactions  of  the  Oxford  Philological  Society 
for  18S0-S1;  Boissier,  Roman  Africa,  Eng.  trans.,  pp.  238-289  (New 
York,  1899)  ;  Hodgkin,  Italy  and  her  Invaders,  8  vols.  (Oxford, 
1 880-1 899)  ;  Curteis,  A  History  of  the  Roman  Empire  from  375- 
800  A.D.  (London,  1875)  ;  Suringar,  Historia  Critica  Scholiastarum 
Latinorum  (Leyden,  1834-5);  Norden,  Die  Antike  Kunstprosa. 
(Leipzig,  1898)  ;  Church,  The  Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages  (Lon- 
don, 1895);  and  Bemont  and  Monod's  MedicEval  Europe,  pp. 
33-124,  Eng.  trans.  (New  York,  1906).] 


V 

THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

A.    The  Monastic  Learning 

The  gloom  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  foreshadowed  in  the 
general  vitiation  of  literary  taste  which  began  to  be  notice- 
able as  early  even  as  the  second  and  third  centuries  a.d. 
The  immediate  causes  of  this  decline  are  two:  (i)  the 
cosmopolitanism  of  the  later  Roman  Empire;  and  (2)  the 
spread  of  Christianity.  Rome,  as  soon  as  it  had  fairly 
secured  the  mastery  of  the  whole  world,  ceased,  in  the 
course  of  a  single  century,  to  be  Roman.  The  capital 
became  a  great  gathering-place  for  men  of  every  rank 
and  language.  "The  Syrian  Orontes,"  says  Juvenal, 
"has  turned  its  course  into  the  Tiber."  ^  Rome's  mer- 
chant-princes, its  knights,  its  senators,  its  jurists,  its  pro- 
vincial governors,  and  at  last  even  its  emperors,  were 
Greeks,  Gauls,  Spaniards,  Africans,  —  almost  anything 
but  Roman,  or  even  Italian.  Briinner  has  shown  almost 
conclusively  that  the  whole  history  of  the  Later  Empire 
is  the  history  of  a  continuous  struggle  between  the  Ger- 
manic and  the  Iberian  elements  for  the  control  of  the 
government. 

*  iii.  62. 
192 


THE   MIDDLE    AGES  1 93 

In  no  sphere  of  activity  is  this  cosmopoHtanism  more 
apparent  than  in  literature,  when,  after  the  second  century 
A.D.,  and  even  earHer,  one  finds  the  great  names  of  its 
masters  to  be  the  names  either  of  Spaniards,  or  Gauls,  or 
Syrians,  or  Sicihans,  or  Africans.  The  result  of  this 
denationalising  of  Roman  literature  showed  itself  before 
very  long  in  the  neglect  of  all  that  was  best  in  the  native 
literary  traditions.  Not  only  Ennius,  Plautus,  Terence, 
Lucretius,  and  Varro  ceased  to  be  read;  but  even  Vergil, 
Horace,  and  Ovid  were  regarded  as  old-fashioned.  It  is, 
indeed,  evident  that  Gauls  and  Spaniards  and  Africans, 
learning  Latin  as  a  foreign  language,  would  be  unable  to 
appreciate  the  niceties  of  diction,  the  exquisite  appro- 
priateness of  phrase  and  epithet,  and  the  more  delicate 
cadences  and  rhythms  that  mark  the  work  of  the  highly 
trained  writers  of  the  Golden  Age  of  Latin  literature. 
Prosody  was  the  first  to  suffer,  since  in  Latin  it  was 
always  an  artificial  thing  and  largely  foreign  to  the  un- 
educated, who  more  readily  caught  the  accented  beat  of 
the  Satumians  or  the  alliterative  jingle  of  the  carmina 
triumphalia.  Hence,  as  early  as  250  a.d.,  we  find  Com- 
modianus  writing  his  Carmen  Apologeticum  in  hexameters 
that  frankly  discarded  syllabic  quantity  and  accepted 
accent  as  the  basis  of  his  metrical  system;  and  it  is  un- 
likely that  very  many  of  his  readers  knew  the  difference. 
The  language  itself  also  suffered  in  the  mouths  and  on 
the  pens  of  foreign  writers.     Prepositions  govern  what- 


194  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 

ever  cases  appear  to  be  most  convenient.  Nouns  become 
heteroclite  with  surprising  facility.  Conjugations  change 
places;  and  there  is  a  wild  dance  of  genders.  Of  course 
these  extreme  breaches  of  morphology  and  syntax  are  far 
from  universal;  but  the  nicer  distinctions  of  the  language 
were  lost  to  the  perceptions  of  both  readers  and  writers. 
Hence  it  was  that,  the  sense  of  style  having  been  blunted 
and  destroyed,  the  second  and  third  centuries  studied 
the  rhetoricians,  and  read  not  so  much  the  great  writers  of 
Rome,  as  abridgments  of  them.  It  was  an  age  of  epitomes, 
of  condensations,  of  scrap-books  and  elegant  extracts;  of 
fiorilegia  and  spicilegia.  This  explains  why  so  many  of 
the  most  valuable  productions  of  the  earlier  centuries  have 
not  come  down  to  us  at  all;  and  why  others  have  been 
preserved  in  meagre  abridgments,  or  in  abridgments 
of  abridgments.  Such  were  the  treatises  in  Greek  by 
King  Juba  of  Mauretania,  whose  SearpiKr]  'la-ropia  is 
now  lost,  though  much  used  by  Julius  Pollux,  in  his 
'OvofxaaTiKov,  a  dictionary  in  ten  books  arranged  by 
subjects;  Hephaestion,  a  writer  of  a  work  on  metres  in 
forty-eight  books,  all  lost,  though  his  own  epitome  of 
them  survives;  Valerius  Harpocration,  who  wrote  a 
lexicon  to  the  ten  orators  ;  Herennius  Philon  of  Byblos 
(sometimes  called  "Philobyblos"),  whose  books  were 
mainly  lost  except  in  one  ;  and  Pamphilius,  whose  ninety- 
five  books  on  glosses  were  epitomised  until  they  were 
only  five. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  I95 

The  spread  of  Christianity  was  perhaps  even  a  more 
important  factor  in  blotting  out  a  taste  for  literature  and 
destroying  the  literary  records  of  the  past.  The  general 
failure  to  appreciate  and  admire  what  was  fine  in  the 
productions  of  the  preceding  centuries  was  only  a  negative 
injury.  The  teaching  of  the  Christians,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  aggressively  and  offensively  directed  toward 
their  destruction.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Church,  Chris- 
tianity spread  chiefly  among  the  ignorant,  who  not  only 
failed  to  value  what  was  agsthetically  precious,  but  felt 
that  suspicion  and  dislike  which  the  vulgar  always  exhibit 
toward  what  they  cannot  understand.  Later,  when  men 
of  education  and  culture  —  men  like  St.  Augustine  and  St. 
Jerome — appeared,  they  regarded  the  writings  of  the 
pagans  as  thoroughly  pernicious  in  their  influence,  —  all 
the  more  because  they  could  themselves  appreciate  their 
attractiveness  and  power.  St.  Jerome  was,  in  fact,  a  scholar 
and  thoroughly  familiar  with  classic  literature;  and  this 
was  even  made  the  basis  of  an  accusation  brought  against 
him  by  his  fellow  Christians.  He  was  at  last  openly 
charged  with  defiling  his  works  with  quotations  from 
pagan  authors;  of  having  employed  monks  to  copy  the 
writings  of  Cicero;  and  of  having  even  on  one  occasion 
polluted  the  minds  of  some  children  at  Bethlehem  by 
explaining  to  them  various  passages  of  Vergil.^  He  tells 
us  in  one  of  his  Epistles  how  he  was  rebuked  in  a 
^  Epist.  Ixx ;  adv.  Rufinam,  I.  ch.  xxx. 


196  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

dream  for  his  guilty  admiration  of  Cicero,  being  borne 
in  the  night  before  the  throne  of  Christ,  accused  of  "being 
a  Ciceronian  rather  than  a  Christian,"  and  scourged  by 
the  angels  so  that  when  he  awoke  in  the  morning  his 
shoulders  were  covered  with  bruises.^  Pope  Gregory  I 
(the  Great)  rebuked  Desiderius,  Bishop  of  Vienna,  for 
having  taught  the  classics  and  thus  "mingled  the  praises 
of  Jupiter  and  Christ  .  .  .  polluting  the  mind  with  blas- 
phemous praises  of  the  wicked."  ^  It  was  believed  and 
taught  that  the  writers  of  the  classics  were  burning  in 
hell.  In  such  monasteries  as  still  kept  any  of  the  manu- 
scripts of  the  secular  literature,  and  where  vows  of  silence 
were  imposed,  it  was  customary  when  any  monk  wished 
a  copy  of  Vergil,  Horace,  or  Livy,  to  indicate  it  by  scratch- 
ing his  ear  like  a  dog,  this  being  the  animal  whom  the 
pagan  writers  were  supposed  to  resemble.^ 

With  men  of  a  sterner  and  fiercer  type,  —  zealots  like 
TertuUianus  and  fanatics  like  Montanus,  —  the  whole 
mass  of  pagan  literature  was  sweepingly  and  savagely  con- 
demned. Its  philosophy  was  a  snare  and  a  stumbling- 
block;  its  history  lies  and  slanders;  its  poetry  licentious 
and  obscene;  the  mythology  of  its  graceful  fables,  a  plain 
enticement  to  the  worship  of  demons.     TertuUian  in  a 

^  Episi.  xxii. 

^Lecky,  vol.  ii.  p.  201. 

*  Maitland,  Dark  Ages,  p.  403.  (London  1853).  Because  of  their  hos- 
tility toward  the  classic  writers,  Julian  the  Apostate  forbade  Christians 
to  teach  rhetoric  and  grammar  (classics)  in  the  schools. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  1 97 

fiery  passage  of  his  De  Spectaculis  denounces  the  gods  01 
the  mythologues  as  devils,  the  worship  of  them  as  devil- 
worship,  and  the  prose  and  verse  that  celebrates  them 
as  devil-literature.  This  was  the  age  when  asceticism 
suddenly  burst  into  life  to  teach  men  that  salvation  in 
the  next  world  was  incompatible  with  comfort  in  this; 
that  the  enjoyment  of  the  beautiful  in  literature  and  art 
was  of  the  flesh ;  and  that  squalor  and  filth  and  intellectual 
ignorance  paved  the  way  to  a  heaven  beyond  the  grave. 
To  the  early  ascetics,  the  refined  pleasure  of  pure  litera- 
ture was  as  dangerous  and  little  less  sinful  than  the  love 
of  women.  Hence,  we  find  St.  Anthony,  the  founder  of 
monasticism,  refusing  to  learn  the  alphabet.  Hence,  an- 
other priest,  who  was  famous  as  a  linguist,  voluntarily  im- 
posed upon  himself  the  penance  of  silence  for  thirty  years; 
and  another  who  found  in  the  cell  of  a  brother  monk  a 
few  books,  reproached  him  with  having  defrauded  of  their 
property  the  widow  and  the  orphan.  All  learning  was 
pernicious,  and  it  was  the  boast  of  St.  Benedict  to  be 
described  as  nescius  el  indoclus.  "It  is  the  duty  of  a 
monk,"  said  St.  Jerome,  "to  weep  and  not  to  teach." 

Literature,  in  fact,  was  in  the  minds  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians as  much  associated  with  the  cult  of  paganism  as 
was  art;  and  both  suffered  alike  as  soon  as  the  Christians 
gained  control  of  the  civil  power.  The  images  of  the 
gods  were  mutilated  and  broken;  the  most  famous  master- 
pieces of  ancient   art  were   destroyed   because   they  de- 


198  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

picted  subjects  from  the  classic  myths ;  and  so,  the  rolls  of 
papyrus  and  vellum  which  contained  the  writings  of  the 
myth-makers  shared  a  similar  fate.  It  was  an  anticipation 
of  the  Puritan  frenzy  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  when  so  many  cathedrals  were  desecrated,  so 
many  paintings  of  the  saints  destroyed,  and  so  many 
priceless  carvings  broken  into  bits,  because  they  gave 
beauty  and  significance  to  the  ritual  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  same  species  of  fanatical  frenzy  marked 
the  course  of  the  early  Christians.  Innumerable  rolls  of 
papyrus  covered  with  copies  of  the  great  masterpieces  of 
Roman  literature  were  used  for  wrapping  goods.  Parch- 
ments were  scraped  of  their  original  texts  and  used  again 
(palimpsests)  for  religious  writings.  The  libraries  that 
contained  them  were  pillaged  by  mobs.  In  389  (or  391), 
under  Theodosius,  that  part  of  the  Alexandrian  Library 
which  then  stood  in  the  Serapeum  was  sacked,  and  the 
books  partly  burned  and  partly  scattered.  The  library  at 
Nisibis  and  the  greater  one  of  100,000  volumes  at  Con- 
stantinople were  both  burned  (477) ;  and  Pope  Gregory  I 
(c.  600)  is  said  to  have  allowed  the  noble  Palatine  Library 
at  Rome  to  be  destroyed.^ 

^  This,  however,  is  only  traditionally  reported.  The  favourite  say- 
ing of  Gregory  was  that  "the  oracles  of  God  are  greater  than  the  rules 
of  grammar"  ;  and  he  is  discreditably  distinguished  for  his  zeal  in  burn- 
ing the  manuscripts  of  Livy  because  they  ascribed  so  much  power  to  the 
heathen  gods.  —  See  Draper,  Hist,  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of 
Europe  (New  York,  1899);  Lecky,  ii.  201;  Guingeri6,  Hist.  Litteraire 
de  ritalie,  i,  pp.  29-31. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  199 

Other  causes  than  the  two  already  mentioned  greatly 
diminished  the  world's  supply  of  books  and  rendered 
more  difficult  the  renewal  of  that  supply.  The  separation 
of  the  Eastern  from  the  Western  Empire  had  had  a  very 
unfavourable  effect  upon  the  collection  and  preservation 
of  books,  dividing,  as  it  did,  the  learning  of  the  East  from 
the  learning  of  the  West.  The  Roman  librarians  ceased 
to  collect  works  written  in  Greek,  and  the  Byzantian 
librarians,  who  had  never  cared  much  about  Roman 
literature,  now  felt  no  interest  in  it  whatsoever.  Finally, 
the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Arabs  in  a.d.  641,  destroyed 
at  a  blow  what  still  remained  of  the  Alexandrian  libraries 
and  shut  off  from  Europe  the  supply  of  papyrus  upon 
which  the  makers  of  books  depended. 

All  these  facts  must  be  considered  in  accounting  for 
the  loss  of  so  many  works  of  classical  literature  whose  re- 
nown ought  to  have  preserved  them,  and  also  for  the 
comparatively  few  manuscripts  of  early  date  that  are 
now  known  to  exist;  the  neglect  of  good  literature,  the 
growing  ignorance  of  the  people,  the  hostility  of  the 
Christians  to  classical  learning,  the  destruction  of  books 
and  libraries,  and  the  barbarisation  of  the  Empire.  In 
the  sixth  century,  one  might,  amid  the  deepening  social 
and  intellectual  darkness  of  the  Western  World,  have  felt 
safe  in  predicting  that  the  literary  splendour  of  Greece 
and  Rome  would  soon  be  only  a  faint  and  dying  memory, 
never  again  to  be  quickened  into  a  living  fact.     That  this 


200  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

was  actually  not  the  case  is  in  a  very  large  degree  due  to 
the  energy,  the  influence,  and  the  example  of  a  single  man. 
Early  in  the  sixth  century  occurred  an  event  which  in 
itself  would  seem  to  have  no  possible  connection  with  the 
history  of  classical  philology  or  the  preservation  of  classical 
learning,  and  yet  which  was,  in  fact,  one  whose  importance 
to  the  student  of  palaeography  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 
About  the  year  529,  one  Benedict,  a  native  of  Nursia, 
founded  the  order  of  monks  that  took  from  him  the  name 
of  Benedictines.  Monachism  had  already  arisen  and  had 
an  extraordinary  vogue  in  the  Eastern  Empire,  having 
begun  with  St.  Anthony  and  spread  so  rapidly  that  his 
first  disciple,  Pachonius,  lived  to  see  himself  the  head  of 
seven  thousand  followers.  Within  a  single  century  we 
find  it  recorded  that  in  the  one  district  of  Nitria,  in  the 
Egyptian  Delta,  there  were  no  less  than  fifty  monasteries.^ 
Yet  in  the  East,  almost  from  the  beginning,  the  system 
was  notorious  for  its  gross  abuses.  There  sprang  up  a 
class  of  monks  called  Sarabastae,  who  lived  in  small  com- 
munities, and  frequently  wandered  about  the  country, 
leading  in  many  cases  a  life  of  idleness  and  open  profligacy. 
Even  in  the  monasteries,  the  want  of  any  well-defined 
regulations  left  the  door  open  to  all  sorts  of  licentious 
practices  which  tended  to  bring  the  whole  institution  into 
contempt  and  scandal.     In  fact,  the  Christian  Church  in 

^  See   Mohler,    Geschichte   des    M onchthums    (Regensburg,  1866-68) ; 
Harnack,  Das  Mdnchthum  (Giesen,  1895). 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  20I 

its  early  years  really  found  its  greatest  danger  not  in 
the  persecutions  of  the  pagan  emperors  and  governors, 
but  in  the  character  of  many  of  its  own  members.  "Men 
entered  the  Church  to  escape  from  military  service,  or  to 
avoid  burdensome  municipal  offices";  worn-out  rakes 
who  had  exhausted  every  other  form  of  excitement,  hare- 
brained enthusiasts  in  search  of  a  new  sensation,  vicious 
and  depraved  men  and  women  impelled  by  curiosity,  — 
all  these  flocked  around  the  teachers  of  the  new  faith  in 
the  expectation  of  a  fresh  stimulus  to  their  jaded  fancies. 
Hence,  almost  immediately,  arose  scandals  and  extrava- 
gances of  which  the  details  are  given  by  contemporary 
writers.^  The  festivals  of  the  martyrs  were  at  one  time 
suppressed  by  the  authorities  because  of  the  licentious 
manner  of  their  celebration.  The  pilgrimages  to  Pales- 
tine attracted  such  motley  crowds  that  the  Holy  Land  is 
described  by  St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  as  a  hot-bed  of  de- 
bauchery. Even  the  Agapae,  or  love-feasts,  often  became 
drunken  orgies.  All  these  evils  were  concentrated 
and  condensed  in  many  of  the  oriental  monasteries,  which 
were  often  filled  by  men  who  made  the  profession  of 
Christianity  only  a  pretext  for  the  practice  of  the  most 
filthy  vices. 
It  was  at  a  time  when  monachism  as  then  understood 

'  See  Jortin,  Remarks  on  Ecclesiastical  History,  5  v.  (1751-53)  ;  Cave, 
Primitive  Christianity,  pt.  I.  ch.  xi  (London,  1687)  ;  Miiller,  De  Genio 
Aevi  Theodosiani  (Copenhagen,  1797);  Lecky,  History  of  European 
Morals,  ii,  pp.  149  foil.  (Am.  ed.,  New  York,  1884). 


202  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

and  practised  had  fallen  into  such  disrepute,  that  St. 
Benedict  (529  a.d.),  founded  his  famous  Order  at  Monte 
Cassino,  about  halfway  between  Rome  and  Naples.  It  was 
a  place  destined  to  be  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the 
history  of  classical  texts  and  learning.  Benedict  was  a 
man  of  little  education,  but  of  a  very  spiritual  mind,  of  an 
unblemished  character,  and  gifted  with  an  unusual  amount 
of  common  sense  as  well  as  of  piety.  He  had  been  made 
the  abbot  of  a  monastery  of  the  Eastern  type,  and  had 
left  it  in  disgust  at  the  license  which  he  found  prevailing 
there;  but  his  experience  was  useful  in  suggesting  to  him 
the  defects  of  monachism  as  then  understood.  He  saw 
that  it  was  not  enough  that  the  monks  should  be  required 
to  fast  and  pray  and  sing  at  certain  times,  while  their 
remaining  hours  were  left  to  idleness ;  but  that  some  rule 
should  be  devised  to  give  them  rational  and  wholesome 
occupation  and  to  provide  for  a  stricter  discipline.  To 
this  end  he  composed  in  the  year  515  ^  his  famous  Regula 
Monachorum,  which  ultimately  became  the  universal  rule 
of  monachism  in  the  Western  Church.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary here  to  go  into  its  details.  It  required  continual 
residence  in  the  monastery;  laid  out  a  scheme  of  manual 
labour  for  the  monk's  spare  hours;  and  above  all,  it  recog- 
nised the  desirability  of  mental  as  well  as  bodily  occupa- 
tion, permitting  such  monks  as  were  qualified,  to  engage 
in  teaching  and  in  copying  manuscripts  for  the  library. 

^  The  date  is  only  traditional.     Some  give  it  as  520. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  20$ 

St.  Benedict  had,  of  course,  no  thought  of  preserving  the 
secular  learning  of  the  age,  and  intended  the  literary 
labours  of  the  monks  to  be  spent  wholly  upon  ecclesiastical 
and  theological  writings;  but  he  did  not  so  specify,  and 
the  permission  given  by  his  Rule  soon  received  an  inter- 
pretation fraught  with  momentous  results  to  modem 
scholarship. 

In  the  year  540,  Flavius  Magnus  Aurelius  Cassiodorus, 
a  Roman  patrician  of  senatorial  rank,  descended  from  a 
rich  and  noble  family  of  Bruttii,  praefectus  urhi  under  four 
of  the  Gothic  kings,  and  secretary  to  King  Theodoric, 
entered  the  Benedictine  monastery  of  Vivarium  which  he 
himself  had  founded  (529),  and  took  the  vesture  and  the 
obligations  of  a  monk.  Cassiodorus  had  been  during  his 
public  life  not  only  a  man  of  the  world  and  a  statesman, 
but  a  scholar  and  writer,  one  of  the  few  men  remaining 
in  the  Western  Empire  who  had  studied  with  care  the 
earlier  literature  of  both  Greece  and  Rome ;  and  after  his 
retirement  to  the  monastery,  his  tastes  remained  un- 
changed, while  the  more  ample  leisure  of  his  new  life 
gave  him  far  more  opportunity  to  cultivate  them.  His 
own  writings  as  a  monk  were  purely  theological;^  but, 
taking  advantage  of  the  rule  which  enjoined  copying  and 
teaching,   he  began  systematically  to   train   the  younger 

^  During  his  public  life  he  wrote  on  the  liberal  studies,  and  put  forth 
a  treatise,  DeArte  Grainmatica,  which  was  used  as  a  text-book  throughout 
the  Middle  Ages.  See  Hodgkin,  The  Letters  of  Cassiodorus  (London, 
1886) ;  Church,  Miscellaneous  Essays,  pp.  191-198  (London,  1888). 


204  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

monks  to  an  appreciation  of  the  value  of  the  secular 
literature  and  to  encourage  by  every  possible  means  both 
the  collection  and  preservation  of  classical  manuscripts 

and  the  multiplication  of  them  in  careful  copies.  Pos- 
sessed of  a  very  large  fortune,  and  being  a  man  of  great 
influence  and  energy,  he  laboured  incessantly  to  the  end 
of  his  long  life  for  this  important  object,  with  such  success 
that  he  actually  succeeded  in  making  every  great  monastery 
of  his  Order  "  a  sort  of  Christian  Academy,"  a  storehouse  of 
classical  literature,  with  its  scriptorium  or  writing-room 
especially  set  apart  for  the  copying  of  parchments.  More 
than  this,  he  made  the  Benedictine  Order  essentially  a 
learned  Order,  with  traditions  of  scholarship  which  have 
been  honourably  maintained  to  the  present  day.^  How 
great  a  debt  is  owed  to  Cassiodorus  in  modern  times,  and 
how  general  had  been  the  destruction  of  manuscripts  that 
were  written  near  the  time  of  their  original  composition,  is 
seen  by  recalling  the  dates  of  the  early  codices  in  existence. 
Thus  y^ischylus,  and  a  part  of  Sophocles,  are  found  in  the 
so-called  Laurentianus  (or  Mediceus)  at  Florence,  belong- 
ing to  the  eleventh  century.  The  oldest  manuscript  of 
Herodotus  goes  back  to  the  eleventh  century,  that  of 
Thucydides  to  the  tenth  century,  and  that  of  Plato  to  the 
ninth  century,  —  though  this  is  incomplete.  The  oldest 
manuscript  of  Plautus  is  a  palimpsest  preserved  at  Milan, 

*  See  OUeris,  Cassiodore,  Conservatur  des  Livres  de  V Antiquite  Latine 
(Paris,  1884)  ;  Montalambert,  The  Monks  of  the  West,  Eng.  trans.,  pp.  71- 
78  (London, 1861). 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  205 

and  was  written  as  early  as  the  fifth  century;  but  it  con- 
tains only  a  few  odd  sheets,  the  other  codices  being  as  late 
as  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century.  The  oldest  codex  of 
Horace  belongs  to  the  ninth  century;  the  oldest  of  Lucre- 
tius to  the  tenth  century.  The  oldest  codices  of  Vergil  are 
as  ancient  as  the  fourth  century,  —  two  of  them  being  in  the 
Vatican  and  one  at  Florence,^ — this  latter  having  correc- 
tions made  by  Asterius,  Roman  consul  in  the  year  494  a.d. 

^  Fragmentary  papyri  as  old  as  the  first  century  B.C.  exist,  and  a  codex 
in  fragments  of  the  sixth  century. 

^  It  may  be  interesting  to  mention  some  of  the  other  important  manu- 
scripts. Thus,  of  Homer,  the  oldest  codex  is  the  Codex  Venetus  A  of  the 
tenth  century  {Iliad),  and  of  the  twelfth  century  {Odyssey);  of  Herodotus, 
the  Codex  Florentinus  or  IMediceus  in  the  Laurentian  Library  of  the  tenth 
century  ;  of  ^schylus,  a  Codex  Laurentianus  (or  Mediceus)  of  the  eleventh 
century ;  of  Sophocles,  the  same  codex  with  iEschylus ;  of  Euripides,  a 
Codex  Vaticanus  of  the  twelfth  century;  of  Aristophanes,  a  Codex  Raven- 
nas  of  the  eleventh  century ;  of  Thucydides  a  Laurentianus  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury ;  of  Plato,  a  Codex  Clarkianus  (Bodleian)  of  the  ninth  century ;  and 
of  Demosthenes,  a  Codex  Parisinus  of  the  eleventh  century.  Of  Latin 
authors,  among  others  we  have  of  Plautus  a  Codex  Ambrosianus  (Milan) 
of  the  fifth  century  (paUmpsest) ;  of  Terence,  a  Codex  Bembrosias  (Vatican) 
of  the  fifth  century  (mutilated),  the  rest  of  the  ninth  century;  of  Lucre- 
tius, a  Leidensis  of  the  ninth  century  ;  of  Catullus,  a  Codex  Parisinus  of  the 
ninth  century  (only  a  part),  the  rest  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  of  Cicero, 
six  Codices  Parisini  of  the  ninth  century ;  of  Caesar,  a  Codex  Amstelo- 
damensis  A  of  the  ninth  or  tenth  century ;  of  Sallust,  two  Codices  Pari- 
sini of  the  tenth  century  ;  of  Vergil,  a  Codex  Vaticanus  of  the  fifth  century  ; 
of  Horace,  a  Codex  Bemensis  (incomplete)  of  the  ninth  century ;  of  Ovid, 
a  Codex  Petavinas  (from  A.  Petavius,  Cy.  xvi.)  of  the  eighth  century ;  of 
Livy,  the  Codex  Veronensis  (bks.  iii.-vi.)  of  the  fifth  century  (palimpsest) ; 
of  Tacitus,  a  Codex  Mediceus  of  the  ninth  century ;  of  Juvenal,  the  Codex 
Pithoeanus  (from  P.  Pithou)  at  Montpellier  of  the  ninth  century;  of  Mar- 
tial,  a  Codex  Parisinus  T  of   the  ninth   century ;  of  Pliny  the  Elder,  a 


2o6  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

These  facts  are  quite  sufficient  to  show  that  with  scarcely 
an  exceptiQn  the  only  manuscripts  of  the  best  classical 
authors  that  give  anything  more  than  isolated  fragments 
are  copies  made  later  than  the  fifth  century.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  labours  of  the  Benedictines  and  of  those  who 
followed  their  example,  the  remains  of  classical  literature 
would  have  been  so  scanty  as  to  give  us  no  real  conception 
of  that  literature  and  learning  as  a  whole. 

With  St.  Benedict  must  be  mentioned  the  Roman  patri- 
cian and  scholar  who  is  said  to  have  been  his  friend.  This 
was  Anicius  Manlius  Torquatus  Severinus  Boethius  (or 
Boetius) ,  almost  the  last  of  the  Western  Romans  to  possess 
a  good  understanding  of  Greek.  He  gained  the  esteem  of 
Theodoric,  King  of  the  Ostrogoths,  who  made  Rome  his 
capital  in  the  year  5000.  Over  the  Goths,  Boethius  exer- 
cised such  influence  that  his  countrymen  found  little  oppres- 
sion in  the  Gothic  rule.  In  the  end,  however,  he  was  ac- 
cused of  treason,  his  property  was  confiscated,  and  after 
being  imprisoned,  he  was  executed  (c.  524)  with  terrible 
cruelty.  While  in  prison,  Boethius  wrote  his  dialogue  en- 
titled De  Consolatione  Philosophiae.  It  was  divided  into 
five  books,  and  was  written  in  a  close  imitation  of  the  best 
Latin  models,  while  the  poetry  which  is  interspersed  shows 

palimpsest  from  the  monastery  of  St.  Paul  in  Carinthia  of  the  sixth  century 
(bks.  xi.-xiv.) ;  of  Pliny  the  Younger,  a  Codex  Laurentianus  (Mediceus)  of 
the  ninth  century ;  of  Quintilian,  a  Codex  Bemensis  of  the  tenth  century 
(incomplete) ;  of  Suetonius,  a  Codex  Memmianus  or  Parisinus  of  the  ninth 
century. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  207 

metrical  accuracy.  For  seven  centuries  he  was  held  in 
great  reverence,  and  even  in  later  times  his  work  was  not 
forgotten.  He  is  the  first  writer  who  shows  a  knowledge 
of  the  Arabic  (Hindu)  numerals.  The  Consolatio  found 
many  translations,  among  them  one  by  King  Alfred  into 
Anglo-Saxon,  and  by  Chaucer  and  Queen  Elizabeth  into 
English.^ 

Now  that  western  Europe  had  been  overrun  by  foreign- 
ers speaking  every  sort  of  language  and  dialect,  one  might 
have  supposed  that  the  Latin  language  would  have  sunk 
into  disuse.  But  just  the  contrary  was  the  case.  It  was 
the  only  stable  language  known  to  men  of  that  time.  Its 
dignity  and  masculine  brevity  made  it  a  fit  medium  of 
intercourse  between  kings  and  princes.  Finally,  it  was  the 
language  of  the  Church,  and  the  Church  was  slowly  con- 
quering the  barbarians  who  had  overrun  the  provinces  of 
ancient  Rome.  Nevertheless,  as  the  spirit  and  history  of 
Latin  literature  were  unknown,  merely  the  faintest  possible 
tinge  of  grammatical  and  technical  knowledge  could  be 
imparted  to  students  who  tried  to  get  a  smattering  of  the 
language  for  practical  purposes  only.  Even  those  who 
knew  how  far  they  were  from  any  real  knowledge  of  what 
they  were  studying,  gloried  in  their  ignorance,  and  made 
a  boast  of  it.     Grammar  was  regarded  as  pedantic.     A 

^  The  most  modem  translation  is  by  James,  (London,  1897).  See,  also, 
Hildebrand,  Bo'etius  und  seine  Stellimg  zum  Chrisknthum  (Regensburg, 
1885) ;  and  Stewart,  Boethius  (Edinburgh,  1891). 


2o8  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

knowledge  of  its  rules  was  held  to  be  somewhat  discredit- 
able. One  of  these  scholars  (Wolfhard  in  the  Life  of  St. 
Walpurgis)  speaks  of  his  own  barbarisms  of  style,  but  tells 
the  reader  that  his  dung-heap  is,  nevertheless,  full  of 
pearls.  Gregory  the  Great  had  spoken  still  more  forcibly 
at  an  earlier  date.  "  The  place  of  prepositions  and  the 
cases  of  nouns  I  utterly  despise,  for  I  consider  it  indecent  to 
confine  the  words  of  the  heavenly  prophets  within  the 
rules  of  Donatus."  A  priest  of  Cordova  uttered  the  same 
thought  with  a  vigour  that  verges  almost  upon  ferocity. 
"  Let  philosophers  and  the  impure  followers  of  Donatus," 
he  says,  "  ply  their  windy  problems  with  the  barking  of 
dogs  and  the  grunting  of  swine,  snarling  with  skinned 
throat  and  bared  teeth:  let  the  foaming  and  bespittled 
grammarians  belch  wind,  while  we  remain  the  evangelical 
servants  of  Christ."  Even  as  late  as  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury the  well-known  anecdote  of  the  Emperor  Sigismund  at 
the  Council  of  Costnitz  is  characteristic  of  the  popular 
feeling  about  grammar.  In  a  speech  against  the  Hussites 
he  had  used  the  word  "schisma"  as  a  feminine  noun,  for 
which  he  was  corrected  by  a  monk,  who  called  out  that 
schisma  was  a  noun  of  the  neuter  gender.  Whereupon  the 
emperor  asked,  "How  do  you  know  it?"  "Because  Alex- 
ander Gallus  says  so."  "  And  who  is  Alexander  Gallus?  " 
"  A  monk."  "  Well,"  said  Sigismund,  "  I  am  the  Emperor 
of  Rome,  and  I  fancy  that  my  word  is  as  good  as  any 
monk's." 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  209 

That  the  Church  did  not  do  more  to  keep  alive  the  spirit 
of  learning  is  not,  however,  to  be  counted  against  her.  We 
ought  rather  to  feel  surprised  that  she  did  so  much.  The 
conditions  of  her  existence  and  the  difficult  mission  that 
she  had  to  perform  have  been  very  fairly  summed  up  by 
Mr.   J.  A.  Symonds:  — 

"The  task  of  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  not  so  much  to 
keep  learning  alive  as  to  moralise  the  savage  races  who  held  Europe 
at  their  pleasure.  .  .  .  After  the  dismemberment  of  the  Empire, 
the  whole  of  Europe  was  thrown  open  to  the  action  of  spiritual 
powers  who  had  to  use  unlettered  barbarians  for  their  ministers 
and  missionaries.  To  submit  this  vast  field  to  classic  culture  at 
the  same  time  that  Christianity  was  being  propagated  would 
have  been  beyond  the  strength  of  the  Church,  even  had  she  chosen 
to  undertake  this  task,  and  had  the  vital  forces  of  antiquity  not  been 
exhausted."  ^ 

The  worst  feature  of  the  mediaeval  spirit  was  that  it 
had  lost  the  power  of  appreciating,  even  in  the  slightest 
degree,  the  classic  sentiment.  To  scholastics,  classicism 
was  absolutely  a  sealed  book.  The  free  air  of  paganism, 
its  passionate  love  of  beauty,  its  abounding  life  and  viril- 
ity and  colour  and  richness  were  as  remote  from  the 
conception  of  the  mediaeval  monks  as  the  sunlight  is 
remote  from  the  conception  of  one  who  is  congcnitally 
blind.  Whatever  they  studied  they  studied  in  the  spirit 
of  Scholasticism.  Their  criticism  was  warped  and 
cramped  and  distorted  by  theology.    If,  for  instance,  they 

'  S3Tnonds,  History  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  i.  pp.  61,  62  (London, 

187s). 

P 


2IO  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

admired  Vergil's  famous  Fourth  Eclogue,  they  admired  it, 
not  because  it  was  in  itself  a  beautiful  piece  of  verse, 
but  because  they  thought  it  a  prophecy  of  the  approaching 
birth  of  Christ.     The  most  licentious  passages  of  Ovid 
were  explained  allegorically,  just  as  modern  commentators 
have  explained  the  sensuous  Hebrew  of  the  Song  of  Songs. 
If  they  taught  grammar,  they  filled  it  full  of  strange  sub- 
tleties, discovering  the  three  Persons  of  the  Trinity  in  the 
verb,  and  mystic  numbers  in  the  parts  of  speech.     Words 
were  even  defined  theologically,  as  when  the  scholastics 
after  defining  voluntas  as  expressive  of  the  nature  of  God, 
and  voluptas  of  the  nature    of  the  Devil,   then  coined 
the  blended  form  volumtas  as  expressive  of  the  mixed 
nature  of  man.     It  is  easy  to  imagine  what  remarkable 
feats  of  ingenuity  their  etymological  speculations  exhibit. 
Nevertheless,  although  the  Church's  task  was  to  moralise 
the  barbarians,  education  was  one  of  its  chief  instruments. 
It  rejected  the  pagan  literature  while  it  retained  the  lan- 
guage in  which  that  literature  had  been  written;  and  after 
paganism  was  thoroughly  extinct,  the  literature  itself  was 
revived  and  taught   in  the  monastic  and  other  schools 
during  the  Middle  Ages.     It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  define 
exactly  what  period  of  time  lies  properly  within  the  medi- 
£eval  age.      The  decline  began  when  Constantine  trans- 
ferred the  seat  of  the  Empire  from  Rome  to  Byzantium 
(Constantinople)  in  330,  because,  after  that,  Rome  itself 
lost  its  chief  significance  both  politically  and  from  the 


THE   MTODLE   AGES  211 

standpoint  of  scholarship.  Its  records  become  more 
and  more  melancholy  with  advancing  time.  Its  officials 
flocked  to  another  and  a  foreign  city.  The  emperors  had 
not  only  turned  their  backs  upon  its  gates,  but  upon 
its  language  and  its  civiHsation.  Henceforward  Rome's 
population  diminished.  Its  temples  fell  into  decay,  and 
there  began  to  brood  over  it  the  portent  of  destruction. 
The  new  Caesars  carried  away  the  archives,  and  it  lost  the 
prestige  of  the  imperial  court.  Some  of  its  rulers  never 
visited  it  at  all.  The  Emperor  Constantius  had  been  in 
power  several  years  before  he  saw  the  former  capital  of  the 
Empire,  and  then  he  journeyed  to  it  only  at  the  request  of  a 
barbarian  prince  whom  he  was  entertaining,  and  who  was 
anxious  to  behold  the  city  which  had  once  been  mistress 
of  the  world.  The  historian,  Ammianus  Marcellinus,* 
(c.  330 -c.  378  A.D.),  gives  an  interesting  account  of  this 
visit.  Constantius  himself  seems  to  have  been  astonished 
by  the  magnificence  of  Rome. 

"As  the  Emperor  gazed  upon  the  vast  city  spreading  along  the 
slopes,  in  the  valleys,  and  between  the  summits  of  the  hills,  he 
declared  that  the  spectacle  which  first  met  his  eyes  surpassed  every- 
thing that  he  had  yet  beheld.  Now  his  gaze  rested  on  the  temple  of 
Tarpcian  Jupiter,  now  on  baths  so  magnificent  as  to  resemble 
entire  provinces,  now  on  the  massive  structure  of  the  Colosseum, 
mightily  compact,  the  summit  of  which  seemed  scarcely  accessible 
to  the  human  eye  ;  now  on  the  Pantheon,  rising  like  a  fairy  dome, 
and  its  sublime  columns  with  their  gently  sloping  stairways  adorned 

^Ammianus  INIarcellinus  was  himself  a  Greek  by  birth,  though  he 
wrote  in  Latin  —  the  Latin  of  a  foreigner,  often  clumsy  and  often  affected. 


212  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

with  statues  of  heroes  and  emperors,  besides  the  Temple  of  the 
City,  its  Forum,  the  Forum  of  Peace,  the  Theatre  of  Pompey,  the 
Odeon,  the  Stadium,  and  all  the  other  architectural  wonders  of 
Eternal  Rome.  When,  however,  he  came  to  the  Forum  of  Trajan, 
a  structure  unequalled  by  any  other  of  its  kind  throughout  the 
world,  so  exquisite  indeed  that  the  gods  themselves  would  find 
it  hard  to  refuse  their  admiration,  he  stood  as  if  in  a  trance,  surveying 
with  a  dazed  awe  the  stupendous  fabric  which  neither  words  can 
picture,  nor  mortal  again  aspire  to  rear.  Being  asked  what  he 
thought  of  Rome,  the  Emperor  repUed  that  in  one  respect  only  was 
he  disappointed,  and  that  was  in  finding  that  its  inhabitants  were 
not  immortal."  ^ 

Not  long  aftervi^ard,  in  the  reign  of  Honorius,  Rome 
witnessed  her  last  great  imperial  spectacle  when  that  em- 
peror entered  the  city  to  celebrate  his  triumphs  over  the 
Goths  (403).  There  is  something  pitiful  in  the  attitude 
of  this  great  city,  which  was  still  the  most  magnificent  of 
any  in  the  world,  accepting  with  almost  hysterical  gratitude 
the  visits  of  curiosity  which  its  emperors  from  time  to  time 
condescended  to  give  it.  Its  very  beauty,  its  maze  of  por- 
ticos, its  wilderness  of  marble,  bronze,  and  gold,  and  its 
gigantic  palaces  gorged  with  pictures,  statues,  and  jewels, 
only  heightened  the  melancholy  of  its  decadence,  with  a 
diminishing  population  now  grown  too  small  to  crowd  its 
streets  and  too  unwarlike  to  defend  its  walls. 

It  is  really  then  from  the  year  330  that  we  must  date  The 
Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  395,  the  Roman  Empire 
practically  embraced  the  entire  Christian  world  from  East 

^  Res  Gestae,  xvi.  14  foil. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  213 

to  West,  and  southward  to  the  great  Sahara.  Yet  already 
there  were  stirrings  in  the  North  and  West,  among  the 
Germans  whose  six  tribes^  were  already  rolling  like  a  wave 
toward  Italy  and  the  western  possessions  of  Rome.  In  410, 
Alaric  headed  the  Visigoths,  penetrated  Greece,  and  later, 
streaming  through  Italy,  sacked  the  great  city  which  for 
eight  hundred  years  had  never  fallen  into  the  hands  of  an 
enemy.  In  415,  Spain  became  an  independent  kingdom 
under  Teutonic  invaders,  the  Burgundians  established 
themselves  in  southeastern  France  and  Switzerland,  and 
later  were  amalgamated  with  the  new  Frankish  kingdom. 
In  449,  the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes  invaded  and  con- 
quered Britain.  Worse  than  all,  there  menaced  Italy  the 
savage  and  ape-faced  Huns  of  Ugro-Finnic  stock,  whose 
hideous  customs  made  them  seem  a  host  of  demons  rather 
than  an  army  of  mortal  men.  Yet  they  did  not  remain  very 
long  on  Roman  soil,  since  they  were  routed  in  Gaul  (at 
Chalons)  by  the  allied  Romans  and  Teutons  (451),  one 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men  having  perished  in  the 
battle,  which  was  even  more  epoch-making  than  those  of 
Thermopylae  and  Marathon.  But  the  Roman  Empire 
in  the  West  was  destined  to  destruction.  In  455,  the 
Vandals  sailed  across  the  Mediterranean  from  Africa,  and 
plundered  Rome.  In  476,  the  Herulian  Goth,  Odoacer, 
became  emperor  of  the  West,  receiving  a  timorous  consent 

'  Ostrogoths,  Visigoths,  Vandals,  Burgundians,  Franks,  and  Suevi. 
See  Gregorovius,  History  of  the  City  of  Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Eng. 
trans.,  i.  chs.  iv-v  (London,   1S94). 


214  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

from  the  emperor  in  Constantinople.  Thus,  one  may  say 
that  the  Middle  Ages  began,  either  with  the  transfer  of  the 
capital  to  Constantinople  in  330,  or  with  the  establishment 
of  Gothic  power  in  Italy  in  476,  A  convenient  time  from 
which  to  date  The  End  is  the  year  1453,  when  the  Eastern 
Empire  fell,  and  the  triumphant  Muhammadans  poured 
through  the  gates  of  Constantinople. 

The  history  of  scholarship  in  the  Middle  Ages,  so  far 
as  concerns  western  Europe,  is  conveniently  divided  into 
the  Early  Christian  Period  (300-751),  the  Carolingian 
Period  (751-911),  and  the  Period  of  Scholasticism  (911- 
1476).  During  the  first  of  these  three  periods,  the  leaven 
of  civilisation  was  at  work  trying  to  bring  about  something 
like  order  among  the  rude  barbarians  who  had  shattered 
and  mastered  the  Western  Empire.  One  great  source 
of  civilisation  lay  in  the  retention  of  the  Latin  language. 
It  was  not,  as  is  often  said,  the  influence  of  the  Church  alone 
that  made  Latin  the  chosen  speech  of  the  invaders  as  soon 
as  they  had  become  settled  in  their  new  possessions.  It 
was  also  the  urgent  need  of  having  some  one  intelligible 
medium  of  communication,  —  a  language  which  Goths 
and  Visigoths,  Franks,  Burgundians,  and  Vandals  could 
use  with  the  certainty  of  being  understood.  All  the  dia- 
lects and  patois  of  Germany  and  Jutland  were  cast,  as  it 
were,  into  the  one  great  crucible.  They  were  simmering 
and  uniting  and  separating,  and  taking  on  continually  new 
forms  and  new  idioms.     There  was  a  chaos  of  human 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  21 5 

speech,  and  amid  it  the  Latin  language  alone  was  the  one 
stable,  settled,  and  fit  instrument  for  the  purpose  for  which 
men  used  it.     A  little  later,  the  Church  confirmed  this 
selection;    and  when,  even  in  the  Dark  Ages,  men  still 
attempted  to  write  and  teach  philosophy  or  theology,  and 
the  elements  of  a  learning  that  had  been  well-nigh  lost, 
it  was  but  natural  that  they  should  employ  the  only  lan- 
guage which  they  knew,  and  which  was  capable  of  express- 
ing accurately   and   easily  their  conceptions.     All  these 
reasons  together,  —  the  need  of  a  universal  language,  the 
usage  of  the  Church  and  the  requirements  of  scholarship, 
gave  Latin  very  great  prominence.     It  spread  from  the 
courts  and  monasteries  and  churches,   into  the  mouths 
and  the  understanding  of  the  common  people,  so  that  it 
was  once  more  almost  a  genuine  vernacular.     Of  this  fact 
proofs  are  not  wanting.     In  the  fourth  century,  during  the 
reign  of  Theodosius,  a  Gaul  addressed  the  Roman  senate 
in  the  lingua  Romana  rustica,  rude  and  rough,  but  still 
intelligible  to  his  hearers.     There  were  still  compositions 
written  in  Latin  during  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  and 
intended  for  the  common  people.     Fortunatus,i  writing 
in  Latin  the  life  of  Saint  Aubin,  says  in  his  Introduction  that 
he  will  be  careful  not  to  use  any  expression  that  may  be 
unintelligible  to  the  populace.      A  popular  song  in  very 
good  Latin  has  come  down  to  us  celebrating  the  victory  of 
Clotaire  II  over  the  Saxons  in  622.     In  the  same  centiu"y, 
'  535-600.     Edition  by  Leo  and  Krusch  (Berlin,  1881-1885). 


2l6  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Baudemind  composed  the  life  of  Saint  Amandus  for  public 
reading,  and  wrote  it  in  fairly  grammatical  Latin.  Latin 
was  also  universally  employed  in  public  documents  and 
public  correspondence.  And  not  merely  was  it  written 
and  spoken  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  but  some  of  the  men 
least  capable  of  succeeding  were  fired  with  an  ambition  to 
gain  honour  from  its  use.  Gregory  of  Tours*  informs  us 
that  Chilperic  I.  attempted  Latin  verse;  and  there  still 
exists  a  letter  written  in  metrical  Latin  by  Auspicius, 
Bishop  of  Tours,  to  a  Count  who  bore  the  barbarous  name 
of  Arbogastes.  The  growth  of  the  papal  power  did  a  great 
deal  to  propagate  and  protect  the  use  of  Latin.  There  was 
constant  communication  between  the  Papal  Court  and  the 
newly  founded  States,  and  it  was  all  in  Latin.  The  bishops 
of  the  Church  were  nobles  of  the  kingdoms  and  of  the 
Empire,  and  they  made  Latin  the  language  of  the  courts. 
The  papal  legate  presided  over  royal  and  imperial  councils, 

1  The  Latin  of  Gregory  himsqlf  is  interesting  as  seen  in  his  History  of 
the  Franks.  It  shows  how  even  with  educated  men  like  himself  Latin 
literature  was  fading  from  remembrance.  He  quotes  Vergil,  but  un- 
metrically.  His  citations  from  other  Latin  writers  are  probably  borrowed. 
He  uses  the  accusative  absolute  and  apparently  does  not  know  that  sub- 
ject and  verb  should  be  in  agreement.  In  him  e  and  i  are  confounded ; 
aspirates  are  practically  disregarded  ;  and  he  pronounces  c  before  i  and  e 
like  s.  See  Bonnet,  Le  Latin de  Gregoire de  Tours  (Paris,  1890)  ;  Monceaux, 
Le  Latin  Vulgaire,  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  (July  15,  1891) ;  du 
Meril,  Poesies  Popiilaires  Latines  anterieures  an  Douzieme  Sicde  (Paris, 
1843)  ;  Nisard,  Essai  sur  les  Poetes  Latins  de  la  Decadence  (Paris,  1867) ; 
Olcott,  Studies  in  the  Word  Formation  of  the  Latin  Inscription  (Rome, 
1898),  and  Grandgent,  Vulgar  Latin  (Boston,  1908). 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  217 

and  so  the  deliberations  were  in  Latin.  Indeed,  the 
breach  between  the  Greek  Church  and  the  Roman  Church 
was  due  very  largely  to  the  fact  that  the  Eastern  Church 
would  not  accept  the  Latin  language  as  its  official  tongue. 
The  Roman  Church  did  well  in  not  yielding.  Latin  is 
essentially  a  liturgical  language.  Lacking  some  of  the 
Hellenic  grace,  its  sonorous  sentences  and  majestic  peri- 
ods seem  made  for  the  stateliness  of  worship. 

Of  course  the  mingling  of  Latin  with  the  so-called  bar- 
barous tongues,  injected  into  its  vocabulary  a  large  number 
of  unusual  words,  just  as  the  syntax  was  violently  deranged. 
Paratactic  sentences  and  illiterate  spelling  were  to  be 
expected,  and  likewise  an  extensive  use  of  prepositions. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered  that  all  these 
things  had  been  common  enough  in  the  language  of  the 
ignorant,  even  during  the  Golden  Age,  as  may  be  seen  plainly 
in  the  plebeian  inscriptions,  and  in  such  writers  as  Persius 
and  Petronius  and  St.  Jerome.  The  Latin  of  literature 
was  never  identical  with  the  Latin  of  men's  daily  speech. 
Therefore,  when  we  come  upon  a  period  of  literary  steril- 
ity, we  find  what  should  be  called  a  reversion  to  popular 
usage  rather  than  an  absolute  corruption  of  what  had 
previously  been  refined  and  regular.  The  plebeian  speech 
comes  to  the  surface  everywhere,  and  sweeps  away  book 
language.  This  vulgar  Latin  lasted  long,  even  in  remote 
parts  of  Europe,  and  among  the  illiterate;  so  that  Dante 
calls  the  Sardinians  "  apes "    {simiae)   because  of  their 


2l8  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

assiduous  imitation  of  Latin.     In  like  manner,  so  soon  as 

there  ceased  to  be  any  definite  standard  of  versification, 

the    nicely    balanced    quantitative    system    so    carefully 

wrought  out,  from  Ennius  to  Ovid,  gives  way  to  an  accentual 

system  which  is  not  new,  but  really  very  old  —  older  even 

than  the  Hellenizing  Period  of  Latin  literature.     Before 

Ennius,  the  populace  chanted  rude  ditties  that  were  rhymed 

and  full  of  alliteration.     After  the  downfall  of  western 

culture,  the  same  sort  of  poetry  again  is  common.     Indeed, 

accentual  rhythm  and  rhyme  were  not  established  by  the 

Church  in  the  Christian  hymns;  but  rather  did  the  priestly 

poets  compose  hymns  in  the  sort  of  metres  that  were  most 

familiar  to  their  congregations.     Some  of  these  hymns  are 

very  beautiful,  and  they  retain  their  place  in  the  literature 

of  succeeding  ages,  —  such  of  them,  for  example,  as  the 

Dies    Irae,    Veni,   Creator   Spiritus,   and   Mortis   Portis 

Fractis,  Fortis,  this  last  by  Peter  the  Venerable.^ 

A  good  example  of  semibarbarous  Latin  prose  is  given 

by  Drager  in  the  Introduction  to  his  Historische  Syntax. 

It  is  from  a  life  of  Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth  (c.  454-526) :  — 

"  Rex  vero  vocavit  Eusebium,  praefectum  urbis  Ticeni,  et  in- 
audito  Boetio  protulit  in  eum  sententiam.  Qui  mox  in  agro  Cal- 
ventino,  ubi  in  custodia  havebatur,  misit  rex  et  fecit  occidi.  Qui 
accepta  corde  in  fronte  diutissime  tortus  est,  ita  ut  oculi  eius 
creparent.     Sic  sub  tormenta  ad  ultimum  cum  fuste  occiditur."^ 

1  See  Duffield,  Latin  Hymns  (New  York,  1889) ;  and  du  Meril,  Poesies 
Latines  du  Moyen  Age  (Paris,  1847). 

*  A  very  admirably  written  monograph,  full  of  illuminating  illustrations, 
isCla.rk's  Sitidies  in  the  Latin  of  ihe  Middle  Ages  (Lancaster,  Penn.,  1900). 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  219 

As  is  well  said  by  Dr.  V.  S.  Clark:  " Barbarism  in  Latin- 
ity  is  a  relative  term,  and  it  is  impossible  to  set  an  exact 
date  for  its  beginning.  It  was  a  matter  partly  of  individual 
writers  as  well  as  of  age."  We  can  find  barbarisms  in 
Latin  during  the  classical  period  that  match  precisely 
some  of  the  barbarisms  of  the  mediae vals.^  We  must 
remember  that  Latin  remained  throughout  the  Middle  Ages 
practically  the  mother  tongue  of  all  the  professional  and 
official  classes,  for  it  was  the  language  of  the  Church,  the 
law  courts,  and  of  both  religious  and  secular  instruction. 
On  the  other  hand,  among  the  peasants,  it  gradually  de- 
cayed or  rather,  perhaps,  was  transmuted  into  the  Romance 
languages;  so  that  the  literary  language  was  styled  lingua 
Latina,  while  the  common  speech  was  called  lingua  Ro- 
inana.  "  It  is  probably  impossible  to  determine  just  when 
Latin  ceased  to  exist  as  a  spoken  language  among  the  com- 
mon people.  But  the  question  of  peasant  dialects,  while 
it  may  be  interesting  from  the  standpoint  of  Romance  phil- 
ology, has  very  little  to  do  with  the  transmission  of  literary 
Latin  through  the  Middle  Ages.  What  we  are  concerned 
with  is  the  extent  to  which  Latin  was  understood  by  people 
who,  even  though  illiterate,  or  nearly  so,  on  account  of  their 
position  in  social  and  economic  life,  correspond  in  a  general 
way  to  what  we  now  sometimes  term  '  the  reading  classes,' 
—  townspeople  and  small  landholders,  traders,  and  the 
better  class  of  artisans  and  craftsmen,  —  the  Canterbury 

^  Supra,  p.  210. 


220  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PfflLOLOGY 

pilgrims  of  the  latter  half  of  the  first  decade  of  Christian 
centuries.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  people  of  this  class 
understood  Latin  and  continued  to  employ  it  occasionally 
long  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  the  ordinary  medium  of  com- 
munication." ^ 

Something  like  a  definite  learning  appears  during  the 
reign  of  Charlemagne  (c.  800).  This  monarch's  chosen 
adviser  was  the  great  mediaeval  educator,  Alcuin,  who 
Latinized  his  name  into  Flaccus  Albinus.  He  was  born  at 
York,  where  he  became  the  head  of  a  large  school.  Later, 
in  Italy,  he  met  Charlemagne,  who  said,  "Come  to  my  court 
and  teach  my  subjects  the  liberal  arts."  Alcuin  gladly 
accepted  the  invitation,  and  at  first  taught  the  Emperor 
himself  in  rhetoric  and  logic.  To  aid  him  in  his  work, 
Charlemagne  established  a  court  school  (Schola  Palatma). 
Alcuin  also  founded  new  schools  throughout  France  and 
improved  those  which  already  existed.  At  Tours  he  set  up 
a  seat  of  learning  modelled  after  his  own  school  at  York. 
Alcuin,  though  imperfectly  trained,  was  the  greatest  scholar 
of  his  time ;  for,  in  addition  to  knowing  Latin  fairly  well,  he 
had  a  smattering  of  Greek  and  Hebrew.  Among  his  works 
are  especially  to  be  noted  a  Rhetoric  and  a  Grammar,  the 
principles  of  which  are  drawn  and  partly  garbled  from  the 

1  See  Muratori,  Ant.  ltd.  Dissertatio  XLma.  Cf.  also  du  M.gx\\,  Poesies 
Poptdaires  Latines,  p.  264  (Paris,  1843).  Poggio  in  his  Historia  Convivialis 
mentions  the  fact  that  Latin  was  spoken  by  the  women  of  Rome  in  his  day 
(1380),  and  that  he  had  learned  from  them  Latin  words  that  he  had  never 
heard  before.     See  Clark,  op.  cit.,  p.  15. 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  221 

writings  of  Cicero.  Both  of  these  books  are  ill-digested, 
and  are  imbued  with  a  clumsy  wit,  intended,  no  doubt,  to 
divert  the  scholar.  Thus,  Alcuin  gives  an  imaginary  dia- 
logue between  himself  and  his  imperial  pupil. 

Alcuin.   What  art  thou? 

Charles.  I  am  a  man  {homo). 

Alcuin.   See  how  thou  hast  shut  me  in. 

Charles.  How  so  ? 

Alcuin.  If  thou  sayest  I  am  not  the  same  as  thou,  and  that  I  am 
a  man,  it  follows  that  thou  art  not  a  man. 

Charles.   It  does. 

Alcuin.  But  how  many  syllables  has  homo? 

Charles.  Two. 

Alcuin.  Then  art  thou  those  two  syllables  ? 

Charles.  Surely  not ;  but  why  dost  thou  reason  thus  ? 

Alcuin.  That  thou  mayest  understand  sophistical  craft  and  see 
how  thou  canst  be  forced  to  a  conclusion. 

Charles.  I  see  and  understand  from  what  was  granted  at  the  start, 
both  that  I  am  homo  and  that  homo  has  two  syllables,  and  that  I  can 
be  shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that  I  am  these  two  syllables.  But 
I  wonder  at  the  subtlety  with  which  thou  hast  led  me  on,  first  to 
conclude  that  thou  wert  not  a  man,  and  afterward  of  myself,  that  I 
was  two  syllables. 

Still  more  characteristic  of  Alcuin's  teaching  is  a  part  of 
the  dialogue  in  which  Pepin,  "  a  royal  youth,"  questions 
Alcuin  (Albinus)  as  follows  :  — 

Pepin.   What  is  writing  ? 
Albinus.   The  guardian  of  history. 
Pepin.   What  is  language  ? 
Albinus.   The  betrayer  of  the  soul. 
Pepin.  What  generates  language  ? 


222  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 

Albinus.  The  tongue. 

Pepin.   What  is  the  tongue  ? 

Albinus.   The  whip  of  the  air. 

Pepin.   What  is  air  ? 

Albinus.  The  guardian  of  life. 

Pepin.   What  is  Ufe  ? 

Albinus.   The  joy  of  the  happy  ;  the  expectation  of  death. 

Pepin.   What  is  death  ? 

Albinus.  An  inevitable  event ;  an  uncertain  journey  ;  tears  for  the 
living  ;  the  probation  of  wills  ;  the  stealer  of  men. 

Pepin.   What  is  man  ? 

Albinus.  The  slave  of  death  ;  a  passing  traveller  ;  a  stranger  in  his 
place. 

Pepin.  What  is  man  like  ? 

Albinus.  An  apple  (i.e.  because  he  hangs  between  heaven  and 
earth). 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  dialogues  that  while  Alcuin, 
like  all  the  mediaeval  scholars,  knew  something  of  the 
classic  tongues,  he  had  lost  entirely  the  classic  spirit,  and 
indeed  his  knowledge  was  rather  fanciful.  Thus,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  a  monk,  he  derived  coelebs  (a  bachelor)  from 
cesium  (heaven),  and  then  gives  the  sapient  explanation 
that  a  bachelor  is  one  who  is  on  the  way  to  heaven.  The 
parts  of  an  hexameter  line  are  called  pedes  because  the 
metres  walk  on  them.  Litlera  is  leg-entibus-iter,  because 
the  litlera  prepares  the  path  for  readers.  Malus  (a  mast) 
has  the  penult  long,  as  against  malus  (with  a  short  penult) 
because  a  m&lus  homo  does  not  deserve  to  have  a  long  a  1 
The  vowels  are  the  souls  of  words,  and  the  consonants  are 
the  bodies.      The  soul  moves  itself  and  also  the  body, 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  223 

while  the  body  is  immovable  apart  from  the  soul.  Thus 
the  consonants  may  be  written  by  themselves,  but  they 
cannot  be  pronounced  when  separated  from  the  vowels. 

It  is  reported  that  x^lcuin  forbade  any  one  to  read  the 
classic  poets.  So,  while  he  did  much  to  prepare  for  the 
great  revival  of  learning,  five  centuries  later,  his  immediate 
influence  was  rather  harmful  than  otherwise.  The  cathe- 
dral schools  taught  what  they  could,  but  even  their 
ablest  scholars  spent  their  time  in  constructing  ingenious 
but  foolish  Latin  trifles  to  show  their  cleverness.  Thus 
they  wrote  for  their  own  amusement  what  they  called 
echo'ici  versus,  or  lines  of  poetry  which  read  the  same 
both  backward  and  forward,  "serpentine  verses"  and 
reciproci  versus}  It  is  interesting  to  know  how  many  of  the 
classical  writers  were  read  at  this  time.  Putting  aside  the 
Church  fathers,  we  have  mention  by  Alcuin  of  Pliny, 
Cicero,  Vergil,  Statius,  Lucan,  the  grammarians,  and 
Horace.^  Where  the  classical  writers  were  not  locked  up 
in  bookcases,  they  were  sometimes  paraphrased,  or  else 

1  Examples  of  these  are  found  even  in  the  classical  writers,  as  the  follow- 
ing from  Sidonius  :  — 

Praecipiti  modo  quod  decurrit  tramite  flumen 
Tempore  consumptum  iam  cito  deficiat. 

(Epist.  ix.  14.) 
where  the  distich,  if  read  backwards,  word  by  word,  gives  a  second  distich. 
^  This  list  is  taken  from  a  poetical  account  by  Alcuin  of  the  Library  at 
York.  One  might  add  also  from  other  sources  Juvenal,  a  part  of  Livy, 
Martial,  Ovid,  a  part  of  Persius,  Phaedrus,  Propertius,  Seneca  (in  part), 
Silius  Italicus,  two  plays  of  Terence,  Tibullus,  and  Valerius  Flaccus. 


2  24  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

centones,  or  patchwork  variations,  were  made  from  them. 
Thus,  the  conversation  between  Dido  and  Anna  {Aeneid, 
iv.)   is  imitated:  — 

Anna,  dux 

Mea  lux, 

Iste  quis  sit  ambigo, 

Quis  honor, 

Quis  color, 

Voltu  quis  intelligo ; 

Ut  reor, 

Ut  vereor, 

Hunc  nostra  connubia 

Poscere, 

Id  vere 

Portendunt  mea  somnia. 

If  the  learned  had  so  little  share  of  the  classical  spirit, 
it  is  not  hard  to  understand  how  dense  was  the  ignorance 
of  the  uneducated  layman.  The  names  and  some  faint 
echo  of  the  exploits  of  the  heroes  of  antiquity  still  floated 
through  men's  minds :  Alexander  the  Great,  as  a  remark- 
able conqueror;  Hector  of  Troy,  as  a  bold  knight  and  lover; 
Helen,  who  set  the  town  of  Troy  on  fire;  Vergil,  as  a  power- 
ful wizard  who  had  once  gone  down  into  hell  and  told  of 
what  he  saw  there  (Aen.  vi.) ;  Venus,  as  a  woman  of  wonder- 
ful beauty,  —  these  were  all  imperfect  memories  flitting 
about  in  legends,  and  fabliaux,  and  minstrels'  songs,  and 
all  confused  with  tales  of  chivalry  and  magic,  and  forming 
part  of  innumerable  stories  about  giants  and  dragons  and 
dwarfs  and  demons,  —  specimens  of  which  are  faithfully 


TEE   MIDDLE   AGES  225 

preserved  for  us  in  the  Gesta  Romanorum/  and  the  Alex- 
ander Saga,  and  faintly  indicated  in  the  Faustus-legend 
and  the  Niebelungenlied.^  Even  in  Italy,  where  one 
might  suppose  that  the  great  architectural  works  of  the 
Romans  would  have  kept  their  history  in  part  alive,  men 
had  forgotten  it  entirely,  and  explained  the  Colosseum,  the 
Palatium,  the  Pantheon,  and  the  great  triumphal  arches 
as  the  work  of  demons  and  sorcerers,  much  as  the  German 
peasants  of  to-day  speak  of  the  Roman  military  works  in 
Wiirttemberg  as  Teufelsmauer.  In  Naples  the  carved 
figures  of  Roman  heroes,  men,  and  statesmen  were  sup- 
posed to  be  talismans.  Many  of  these  ancient  structures 
were  ascribed  to  Vergil,  who  was  said  to  have  known  a 
spell  so  powerful  as  to  compel  devils  to  come  from  hell  and 
build  for  him.^  The  wandering  reprobates,  known  as 
Goliardi,  went  about  singing  half-lyrical  songs  celebrating 
love  and  wine. 
Nevertheless,  the  Carolingian  Age  left  deep  traces  upon 

1  A  collection  of  curious  anecdotes  borrowed  from  all  sources  and  written 
in  Latin.  Most  of  them  have  "morals"  attached  to  them,  and  they  are 
written  in  almost  childish  Latin.  Some  of  them  in  later  centuries  were 
borrowed  by  Shakespeare,  Chaucer,  Gower,  and  Schiller  for  their  plots  or 
themes.  See  the  English  version  edited  by  Hooper  (London,  1894) ;  and 
Howells,  My  Literary  Passions,  p.  14  (New  York,  1895). 

^'See  Engel's  bibliography  of  the  older  Faust-literature  (Aldenburg, 
1885) ;  and  for  the  Niebelungenhed,  Lichtenberger,  Le  Poeme  et  la 
Legende  des  Niebelungen  (Paris,  1891). 

'  See  Comparetti,  Vergil  in  the  Middle  Ages,  pt.  ii.,  Eng.  trans.  (London 
and  New  York,  1895) ,  and  Leland,  The  Unpublished  Legends  of  Vergil, 
(New  York,  1900).    On  the  Alexander-Saga,  see  Spiegel  (Leipzig,  1851). 

Q 


226  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

mediasval  Europe.  Alcuin  ^  may  be  said  to  have  originated 
the  University  of  Paris;  and  his  schools  sent  out  teachers 
into  the  far  North,  so  that  even  Ireland  became  an  im- 
portant home  of  learning,  with  schools  and  abbeys  and 
monasteries  of  great  repute.  The  oldest  manuscript  of 
Horace  (the  Codex  Bernensis)  was  undoubtedly  copied  by 
an  Irish  monk  in  the  eighth  or  ninth  century,  since  on 
the  margin  are  found  words  written  in  the  Erse  or  Irish 
alphabet. 

But  the  first  impulse  toward  a  revival  of  classical  study 
under  Charles  the  Great  died  out  within  the  period  of  a 
few  generations.  The  immediate  reasons  for  this  new 
decadence  is  partly  to  be  found  in  a  superstition  which 
seized  upon  all  Christendom  in  the  tenth  century.  Men 
were  obsessed  with  the  belief  that  the  world  was  to 
be  destroyed  in  the  year  looo.  With  the  horror  of  this 
approaching  dissolution  before  their  eyes,  —  a  horror 
that  deepened  as  every  day  brought  them  nearer  and  nearer 
to  the  time  of  the  expected  cataclysm,  —  all  learning  fell  into 
absolute  neglect.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  conceive  of  the 
profound  gloom  that  brooded  over  the  peoples  of  Europe 
as  the  thousandth  year  approached.     Men  ceased  to  build 

^  See  The  Life  of  Alcuin  by  Lorenz,  Eng.  trans.  (London,  1837) ; 
West,  Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  Christian  Schools  (New  York,  1892) ;  Mul- 
linger,  The  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great  (London,  1877)  ;  Rashdall,  The 
Universities  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages  (Oxford,  1895)  ;  Putnam, 
Books  and  their  Makers  during  the  Middle  Ages,  i.  (New  York,  1896) ; 
and  Sandys,  op.  cit.,  i.  466,  497. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  227 

houses,  to  buy,  or  to  sell.  They  forsook  their  domestic  du- 
ties and  betook  themselves  to  the  churches  and  the  shrines 
of  the  saints;  all  worldly  interests  were  swallowed  up  in  the 
great  dread  that  oppressed  their  souls.  When  the  dreadful 
year  arrived,  it  brought  with  it  everything  that  could 
heighten  and  intensify  the  universal  terror.  A  hideous 
plague  broke  out,  the  crops  failed,  the  very  seasons  seemed 
to  have  been  checked  in  their  courses.  Such  imperfect 
accounts  as  have  come  down  to  us  of  that  period  give  us, 
as  it  were,  only  glimpses  of  the  fearful  scenes  that  were 
enacted,  —  the  wailing  of  women,  the  prayers  of  the  priests, 
the  lamentations  of  the  diseased,  many  becoming  mad 
with  fright,  half-naked  fanatics  stalking  through  the  streets 
of  cities  and  invoking  damnation  upon  the  wicked;  while 
those  lost  souls  whose  own  sins  had  driven  them  to  despair 
of  pardon  threw  off  all  restraint  and  with  a  sort  of  blas- 
phemous defiance  plunged  into  every  form  of  lust  and 
crime.  When  the  year  looi  was  ushered  in,  and  the 
world  remained  still  unvisited  by  the  angel  of  death,  a 
great  reaction  came.  Many  went  back  to  their  old  life; 
but  the  Church,  with  a  profound  feeling  of  gratitude  and 
relief,  resolved  to  signalise  the  respite  by  a  new  activity. 
It  is  to  this  fresh  enthusiasm  that  the  second  impulse 
toward  a  revival  of  study  must  be  traced. 

A  whole  century,  however,  elapsed  before  much  progress 
had  been  made;  but  with  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century 
the  great  movement  known  as  Scholasticism  was  fully 


228  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

under  way.  Scholasticism  was  rather  an  intellectual 
than  an  aesthetic  development.  Its  chief  features  are 
dialectic  and  not  philological.  The  whole  movement  re- 
volves about  the  philosophical  question  of  Realism  and 
Nominalism;  but  this  discussion,  while  it  sharpened  men's 
wits  and  made  them  acute  in  reasoning,  was,  after  all,  little 
better  than  the  labour  that  is  done  in  a  treadmill;  for  the 
schoolmen  were  not  free  to  question  anything  fundamental. 
The  Church  prescribed  for  them  a  ready-made  solution  of 
every  great  philosophical  problem,  so  that  the  dialecticians 
and  casuists  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  only  travelling  in  a 
circle,  making  no  progress  at  all,  but  only  vexing  their  souls 
and  beating  against  the  bars  of  an  intellectual  cage.  This 
narrowness  and  lack  of  freedom  became  more  and  more 
oppressive  as  time  went  on,  and  more  and  more  vexatious 
to  the  bolder  spirits  of  the  age. 

Tlie  time  from  the  eighth  century  to  the  fourteenth  is 
divisible  into  two  periods,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of 
classical  learning.  The  first  period  begins  at  the  end  of 
the  eighth  century  when  Charles  the  Great  established 
Monastic  Schools,  and  made  the  first  attempt,  probably  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  to  provide  for  a  universal  gratui- 
tous primary  education,  and  for  Higher  Schools.  This 
period  is  a  short  one,  inasmuch  as  the  educational  establish- 
ments of  Charles  died  out  within  a  few  generations  to  make 
way  for  a  new  barbarism.  The  second  period  begins  with 
a  second  restoration  of  learning  under  the  guidance  of 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  229 

Scholasticism  —  a  period  which  saw  the  Founding  of  the 
Great  Universities.  This  second  revival  of  learning  was 
not,  however,  permanent,  and  the  new  love  of  study  again 
decayed  and  was  followed  by  the  Renaissance,  that  final  im- 
pulse toward  liberal  culture  which  forms  the  beginning  of 
all  modern  educational  history.  These  three  revivals  of 
learning,  which  were  really  revivals  of  classical  study,  were 
each  stronger  than  its  predecessor,  and  each  prepared  the 
way  to  some  extent  for  the  next.  The  first,  under  Charle- 
magne and  Alcuin,  though  it  lasted  but  a  short  time,  left  a 
body  of  men  devoted  to  teaching,  and  gave  some  slight 
degree  of  continuity  down  to  the  founding  of  the  universities, 
as  Professor  West  observes,  ''so  sheltering  studies  in  various 
monasteries  and  cathedrals  that  some  of  the  greater  schools, 
thus  kept  alive,  afterwards  became  natural  receptacles  for 
the  new  university  life  of  the  next  age." 

The  first  of  these  periods  just  mentioned  was  marked  by 
a  more  systematic  study  of  the  Latin  language.  The  im- 
portance of  grammar  began  now  to  be  recognised  as  the 
only  safeguard  against  the  absolute  corruption  of  that 
tongue.  One  of  the  great  French  monastic  schools  took 
for  its  motto  the  sentence.  In  onini  doctrina  grammatica 
praecedit.  Its  study  was  made  the  basis  and  starting- 
point  of  all  secular  learning,  and  the  minuteness  with 
which  it  was  pursued  proved  an  admirable  corrective  to  the 
slovenly  carelessness  in  the  use  of  Latin  which  had  marked 
the  ecclesiastical  writings  of  the  preceding  centuries. 


230  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

In  the  twelfth  century  three  great  schools  survived  of  the 
numerous  establishments  founded  by  Charles  the  Great, 
and  are  distinguished  for  their  influence  in  the  preservation 
of  classical  learning.  These  were  at  Laon,  at  Paris,  and 
at  Chartres.  In  them  a  number  of  famous  teachers 
ushered  in  the  scholastic  period  and  did  much  to  keep  alive 
the  forms  at  least  of  pure  Latinity.  Of  these  three  schools, 
the  School  of  Chartres  is  the  most  remarkable  because  its 
interest  was  less  theological  and  dialectical  than  literary, 
so  much  so  that  Poole  justly  says  of  it  that  its  character 
was  that  of  "  a  premature  humanism."  Associated  with 
it  are  the  names  of  Fulbert,  whose  pupils  styled  him  "Soc- 
rates," and  who  died  in  1029;^  of  St.  Bernard  (1091-1153); 
and  of  Abelard  (1079-1142),  who  boldly  appealed  to  reason 
as  against  authority  and  thus  foreshadowed  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  research,  which  ultimately  became  the  watch- 
word of  the  nascent  universities.^ 

In  this  school  Bernard  of  Chartres  composed  hexam- 
eters on  the  model  of  Lucretius,  wrote  a  commentary 
on  the  first  six  books  of  the  Aeneid,  and  drilled  his  pupils 

*  Not  the  canon  associated  with  the  story  of  Abelard  and  Heloise. 
The  great  Fulbert  was  bishop  of  Chartres. 

^  See  the  biography  of  St.  Bernard  by  Sparrow-Simpson  (London,  1895)  ; 
McCabe,  Peter  Abelard  (New  York,  1901)  ;  and  Compayre,  Abelard 
and  the  Origin  and  Early  History  of  Universities  (New  York,  1893). 
St.  Bernard,  the  great  controversialist  and  mystic,  is  usually  called 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux.  Bernard  the  writer  of  beautiful  hymns  is 
known  as  Bernard  of  Cluny.  The  two  men  were,  however,  contem- 
poraneous. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  23 1 

in  the  forms  and  rules  of  grammar  as  he  understood  them, 
introducing,  at  an  early  period  of  the  course,  the  reading 
of  the  classical  texts.  Upon  these  he  commented  freely, 
besides  treating  them  grammatically,  pointing  out  the 
difference  between  the  prose  and  the  poetic  style,  and  de- 
veloping his  system  in  a  way  that  suggests  the  enlightened 
methods  of  a  later  age.  Everyday  exercises  in  prose  and 
verse  composition  were  required,  and  an  insistence  upon 
good  models  marked  his  teaching.  One  of  his  maxims, 
which  has  been  quoted  by  John  of  Salisbury,  is  significant 
of  the  originality  of  his  mind :  ''  Among  the  virtues  of  the 
grammarian  this  is  one,  to  he  ignorant  of  some  things." 

These  schools,  as  has  been  already  said,  formed  centres 
about  which  ultimately  rose  the  earliest  Universities.  Any 
cathedral  school  which  boasted  of  the  presence  of  a  famous 
teacher  drew  to  it  a  crowd  of  students,  such  an  institution 
being  called  at  first  studium  generale.  These  finally  re- 
ceived a  sort  of  incorporation  by  papal  bulls  and  royal 
charters,  with  the  power  of  perpetuating  themselves  by  en- 
dowing their  graduates  with  the  right  of  teaching  every- 
where. This  license  to  teach  was  the  origin  of  the  academic 
degree,  and  as  soon  as  the  studium  generale  had  become  a 
corporation  it  received  the  name  of  Universitas.  Perhaps 
the  oldest  university  was  that  of  Bologna,  which  was 
founded  in  1093,  while  Paris  had  a  separately  organised 
teaching  body  as  early  as  1169.  Oxford  became  a  univer- 
sity at  about  the  same  time ;  Cambridge,  perhaps  a  little 


232  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

earlier.  The  oldest  German  university  is  that  of  Prague, 
whose  foundation  dates  from  1347.  During  the  whole 
period  of  scholasticism  which  practically  ends  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  while  the  Latin  language  was  greatly  used 
as  a  medium  of  communication  and  while  its  general  forms 
were  studied,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  classics  were  either 
read  or  appreciated  outside  of  a  few  centres  like  that  of 
Chartres.  The  teaching  of  the  age  was  as  narrow  as  its 
thought.  Latin  was  studied  only  as  a  vehicle  for  scholastic 
disputation.  It  was  spoken  fluently  by  all  scholars,  but 
the  classics  were  very  little  read;  while  the  vocabulary  of 
the  language  was  filled  with  a  swarm  of  new  words  and 
expressions  partly  theological  and  philosophical,  and  partly 
legal  and  political.^  The  only  persons  who  kept  alive  the 
older  classical  tradition  were  a  few  Italians  who  left  Italy 
and  established  themselves  in  various  parts  of  Western 
Europe.  Among  these  were  Anselm,  who  became  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  in  the  year  1093,  and  whose  prede- 
cessor Lanfranc,  together  with  men  who,  like  John  of 
Salisbury  and  a  few  of  the  French  scholars,  still  knew 
something  of  the  Latin  of  ancient  Italy. 

That  so  many  manuscripts  have  survived  to  us  dating 
from  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  is  due  to  no  wide- 
spread love  of  classical  learning,  but  rather  to  the  fact  that 

'  Cf.  such  words  as  nominalismus,  mater ialismus,  realismus,  quidditas, 
haeceitas,  and  see  Du  Cange's  Glossarium  ad  Scriptores  Mediae  et  Infinae 
Latinitatis  (last  ed.,  1884  foil.),  passim. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  233 

in  the  monasteries  copying  was  imposed  upon  the  monks 
by  way  of  penance.  There  was  also  a  certain  pride  in  pos- 
sessing books,  irrespective  of  any  desire  to  read  them. 
This  pride  was  wholly  the  pride  of  the  collector  and  not  at 
all  the  pride  of  the  scholar;  nevertheless,  to  it  is  largely  due 
the  preservation  of  such  manuscripts  as  we  now  possess. 
Among  these  storehouses  in  which  were  hoarded  the 
treasures  of  classic  literature,  are  especially  to  be  noted 
the  libraries  of  Monte  Cassino,  Naples,  Bologna,  Milan, 
and  Bobbio  in  Italy;  Fleury,  Tours,  Cluny,  Mont- 
pellier,  Chartres,  Grenoble,  Lille,  Liege,  Paris,  Marseilles, 
and  Caen  in  France;  Augsburg,  Freystadt,  Strasburg, 
Leipzig,  Wiirzburg,  Mainz,  Konigsberg,  Zweibriicken,  in 
Germany;  Leyden,  Utrecht,  and  Dordrecht  in  Holland; 
St.  Gallen  in  Switzerland;  Copenhagen  in  Denmark; 
Stockholm  in  Sweden;  Seville  and  Saragossa  in  Spain; 
and  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Salisbury,  and  York  in  Eng- 
land.^ So  true  was  the  remark  ascribed  to  Geoffrey 
of  Sainte-Barbe-en-Auge:  Claustrum  sine  armario  (est) 
quasi  castrum  sine  armamentario.  It  may  interest  the 
reader  to  see  which  are  the  oldest  classical  codices  now 
extant : 

^  See  Clark,  Libraries  in  the  Medicsval  and  Renaissance  Period  (Cam- 
bridge, 1894)  ;  Dugdale,  Monasticum  Anglicaniim,  8  vols.  (London,  1849) ; 
Wattenbach,  Das  Schriflwesen  imMitldaller  (Leipzig,  1875)  J  Deschamps, 
Dictionnaire  de  Geographic  a  VUsagc  du  Libraire  (Paris,  1870)  ;  Wehle, 
Das  Buck  (Leipzig,  1879) ;  and  Putnam,  op.  cit.  (New  York,  1896-97). 


234  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

A  List  of  Some  of  the  Oldest  Classical  Manuscripts  ' 

I.  Greek. 

a.  Fragments  of  Euripides'  Antiope  and  Plato's  Phcsdo,  250  B.C. 
(Flinders  Petrie  Papyri,  ed.  Mahaffy,  Dublin  Academy, 
1890.)     The  oldest  specimens  of  a  classical  text  known. 

h.  A  few  lines  of  the  XL  Iliad  (ante-Aristarchean  and  non- 
Zenodotean),  240  B.C. 

c.  Louvre  Fragmenta  of  Euripides,  second  century  B.C. 

d.  Alcman,  second  to  first  century,  B.C.  (Paris). 

e.  Iliad  fragmenta  (Banks,  Harris),  second  century  B.C. 

/.    Papyri  from  Hcrculaneum,  79  a.d.  (Epicurus,  Philodemus). 

?.   Aristotle.  1  _. 

7    ^^       ,       „      ,    ,. ,      \  First  to  second  century  a.d. 

h.   Herodas,  Bacchylides.  J 

i.  Menander  (discovered  in  Egypt,  1905). 

k.  Hyperides,  150  a.d.  (London,  Paris). 

/.  Berlin  fragments  of  the  Melanippe  of   Euripides,  third  to 

fourth  century. 

m.  Pap3T:us  fragments  of  Isocrates,  fourth  century  (Marseilles). 

n.  Codex  Ambrosianus  of  the  Iliad  (Milan) . 

0.  Codex  Vaticanus  of  Dio  Cassius. 

p.  Euripides'  Phaeton,  and  Menander,  Fragments. 

q.  Fragmenta  of  Aristoph.,  Birds  (Paris). 

n.  Latin. 

c.  Fragments  of  the  Younger  Seneca,  first  century  (Hercu- 
laneum) . 

b.  Manuscript  of  Vergil,  fourth  to  fifth  century   (chiefly  Flor- 

ence, Vatican). 

c.  Fragmenta  of   Sallust's  Historic^,  third  to   fourth  century 

(Orleans). 

d.  Codex  Bembinus of  Terence,  fourth  to  fifth  century  (Vatican). 

e.  Codex  Puteaneus  of  Livy,  sixth  to  seventh  century  (Paris). 

1  Many  of  the  dates  in  this  list  are  conjectural,  though  agreed  upon 
by  scholars. 


Fifth  to 
sixth 
century. 


THE   MIDDLE    AGES  235 

Palimpsest. 

Juvenal  and  Persius,  fragmenta  in  codice  Vaticano,  third  to 
fourth  century. 

Codex  Veronensis  and  Codex  Vaticanus  of  Livy. 

Lucan  (Vienna,  Naples,  Rome),  fourth  century. 

Cicero's  De  Republica,  fourth  to  fifth  century  (Vatican). 

Cicero  in  Verrem,  fragmenta  in  Codice  Vaticano,  fifth  century. 

Gaius,  fifth  century  (Verona). 

Platus  (Codex  Ambrosianus),  fifth  to  sixth  century  (Milan). 

Gellius  and  Seneca,  fragmenta,  fifth  to  sixth  century  (Vatican). 

Fronto,  fragmenta,  fourth  to  sixth  century  (Vatican,  Milan). 

Livy,  fragmenta  (Vienna),  fifth  century. 

It  has  been  said  that  most  of  the  codices  preserved  in 
these  and  other  libraries  were,  for  the  most  part,  Latin 
and  not  Greek.  By  the  eighth  century,  Greek,  even  as  a 
tradition,  had  faded  from  the  memory  of  Western  Europe. 
Hellenic  literature  was  little  more  known  at  that  time  than 
was  Sanskrit  down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  names  of  Greek  poets,  philosophers,  and  statesmen 
were  familiar  only  from  the  mention  of  them  in  Latin 
authors.  Their  actual  personality,  their  time  and  country, 
and  their  places  in  history,  were  all  a  blank.  Thus  we 
find  Smaragdus,  a  mediaeval  grammarian,  so  ignorant  of 
the  meanings  of  Greek  words  as  to  think  that  Eunuchus 
Comosdia  and  Orestes  Tragcedia  were  the  names  of  authors.^ 

1  Almost  the  only  exception  to  this  general  ignorance  of  Greek  is  to  be 
found  in  Ireland,  whither  Greek  was  probably  brought  from  Gaul  in  the 
fifth  century.  The  Irish  schools  were  admirably  conducted,  and  for  a 
time  the  country  was  unmolested  by  the  dwellers  upon  the  Continent. 
While  in  Gaul  and  Germany  and  Italy  there  was  continual  strife  and 


236  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Even  when  a  little  Greek  had  filtered  its  way  into  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  mediaevals  they  used  it  to  vitiate  and  render 
barbarous  the  Latin  which  they  wrote.  Thus,  the  gram- 
marian, Vergilius  Maro,  in  the  seventh  century  (whose 
preceptor  wrote  a  work  in  which  he  discusses  twelve  kinds 
of  Latin),  coined  new  words  on  the  analogy  of  the  Greek. 
For  example,  scribere  was  supplanted  by  charaxare,  while 
rex  became  thors  (from  6p6vo<i)^  so  that  the  mixture  of 
Greek  with  Latin  and  the  garbling  of  Latin  forms  to  re- 
semble Greek,  resulted  in  an  argot  which  is  difficult  to 
understand  and  which  might  well  have  justified  the  theory 
that  there  were  t\velve  kinds  of  Latin,  or,  indeed,  as  many 
kinds  of  Latin  as  there  were  monks  who  knew  a  little 
Greek.  There  remains  a  composition  by  an  Irish  monk  * 
which  contains  the  sentence :  '  Pantes  '  solitiim  elahorant 
agrestes  '  orgiiim,'  two  out  of  the  five  words  being  Greek. 
These  are  only  a  few  of  the  quaint  things  that  were  con- 
ceived by  the  mediaeval  grammarians,  who  made  even  a 
deeper  darkness  out  of  a  glimpse  of  daylight.  Thus  we 
hear  of  long  discussions  on  what  was  the  vocative  of  ego, 
and  of  furious  debaters  rushing  at  one  another  with  drawn 
swords  because  they  could  not  agree  as  to  inchoative  verbs.^ 

a  deepening  of  intellectual  darkness,  Irish  scholars  preserved  the  older 
learning  and  carried  it  to  Bobbie  and  Pa  via  and  St.  Gallen.  See  Cramer, 
De  Gracis  M edii  Mvi  Studiis ,  i.  24  (London,  1849);  Hyde,  A  Literary 
History  of  Ireland  (Dublin,  1899) ;  Newell,  St.  Patrick,  his  Life  and 
Teachings  (London,  1890) ;  and  Bury,  Life  of  St.  Patrick  (Cambridge,  1905). 

^  Hisperica  Famtna,  edited  by  Stovvasser  (1887). 

*  See  Sandys,  op.  cit.  i.  p.  450,  with  the  references  there  given. 


THE   MIDDLE    AGES  237 

Another  thing  that  interested  the  mediaeval  scholars,  as 
it  had  the  Romans  and  even  the  Aristotelian  Greeks, 
was  the  so-called  Liberal  Arts  {artes  liberales) .  Aristotle  ^ 
made  a  distinct  division  between  the  liberal  and  the 
practical  or  technical  arts.  Varro  and  Cicero  carried 
over  the  distinction  to  Roman  culture,  and  Varro  set 
forth  nine  subjects  which  made  up  the  training  of  the 
Roman  gentleman  {liher  homo).  These  nine  were  gram- 
mar, logic,  rhetoric,  geometry,  arithmetic,  astrology,  mu- 
sic, medicine,  and  architecture.^  The  later  Romans, 
under  Alexandrian  influence,  sought  to  lessen  the  number 
of  liberal  arts,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  dropped  medi- 
cine and  architecture,  though  we  have  no  direct  proof 
of  this.  About  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
Western  Church,  which  had  at  first  discouraged  liberal 
studies  on  the  ground  that  they  were  pagan,  gradually 
came  to  cultivate  them  because  they  ministered  to  the 
higher  spiritual  truth.  In  this  the  Church  was,  curiously 
enough,  going  back  to  Aristotle,  and  even  to  Solon,  who 
taught  that  ixovaiKri  or  liberal  culture  is  the  training  of  the 
soul.  St.  Augustine  (a.d.  354-430)  altered  the  number 
of  the  liberal  arts,  so  that  his  category  contained  only 
seven;  and  in  this  he  was  followed  by  the  famous  gram- 
marian, Martianus  Capella,  a  native  of  Africa,  but  a  teacher 
at  Rome,  where  he  wrote,  somewhat  earlier  than  a.d.  439, 
a  sort  of  educational  allegory  called  De  Nuptiis  Philo- 
logicB  et  Mercurii. 

*  Politics,  viii.  i.  *  Ritschl,  Opiisc.  iii.  371, 


238  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

This  work  is  as  important  in  the  history  of  prose 
fiction  as  it  is  in  the  history  of  education;  for  its  author 
dragged  fiction  into  the  service  of  grammar  and  tried  to 
sugar-coat  the  pill  of  philology  with  myth  and  story. 
Martianus  strikes  out  medicine  and  architecture  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  utilitarian  studies.^  In  Boethius  we 
find  a  separation  of  the  liberal  arts  into  t\vo  groups :  first 
arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy,  which  form 
what  was  afterwards  called  the  Quadrivium ;  while  gram- 
mar, rhetoric,  and  logic  form  a  trio  which  was  soon  known 
as  the  Trivium.  Cassiodorus  wrote  a  work  upon  the 
liberal  arts,  fixing  the  number  at  seven  and  even  asserting 
that  this  number  had  a  mystical  meaning,  since  he  quoted 
the  text:  "  Wisdom  hath  builded  her  house;  she  hath 
hewn  out  her  seven  pillars."  ^  This  classification  and 
this  mystical  interpretation  of  the  number  seven  continue  ^ 
down  through  the  writings  of  Isidorus,^  and  was  especially 
favoured  by  Alcuin^  and  by  Alcuin's  pupil,  Rabanus 
Maurus.®  This  famous  teacher  (whose  name  is  also  written 
Hrabanus)  was  bom  at  IMainz,  of  which  city  he  was  later 
made  Archbishop.     Studying  under  Alcuin,  he  compiled 

1  Martianus  (ed.  by  Eyssenhardt,  pp.  332  and  336). 

^  Prov.  ix.  I. 

^  Seven  was  a  mystic  number,  not  only  among  the  Jews,  but  among  all 
the  great  nations  of  antiquity.  See  an  interesting  chapter  on  the  subject 
in  Hadley,  Essays  (New  York,  1873). 

*  Supra,  p.  190.  '  Supra,  pp.  220-223. 

*  His  collected  works  are  to  be  found  in  Migne's  Patrologia  Latina, 
vols,  cvii-cxii.    Cf.  the  monographs  by  Kohler  (1870)  and  Richter  (1882). 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  239 

an  abridgment  of  the  Latin  grammar  of  Priscianus  which 
was  much  used  throughout  the  Middle  Ages.  He  is  a 
connecting  hnk  in  the  development  of  classical  study,  as 
are  his  own  pupils  Rudolphus  and  Trithemius,  who  wrote 
biographies  of  their  master  which  can  be  found  in  Migne's 
Patrologia. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  there  appears  the 
remarkable  figure  of  Roger  Bacon,^  an  Englishman  born 
at  Ilchester,  educated  at  Oxford  and  Paris,  and  finally 
enrolled  in  the  Franciscan  Order.  In  his  writings  one  can 
find  that  clearness  of  vision  and  keenness  of  criticism 
which  were  inimical  to  scholastic  teaching.  Bacon  reaches 
out  and  figuratively  clasps  hands  with  men  of  modern 
times.  His  chief  works  are  the  Opus  Mains,  the  Opus 
Minus,  and  the  Opus  Tertium  (fragmentary).  He  also 
wrote  a  compendium  on  philosophy  and  another  on 
theology.  His  originality  gave  great  force  to  his  learn- 
ing, which  was  beyond  that  of  any  contemporary.  He 
thought  much,  and  he  set  down  what  he  thought  in  a 
vigorous  style  and  with  a  certain  audacity  which  was  rare 
among  his  fellows.  So  far  in  advance  was  he  of  others 
in  the  sphere  of  physics,  that  in  his  own  time  he  was  re- 
garded as  a  sort  of  wizard  or  necromancer.  It  is  likely 
that  he  had  a  knowledge  of  gunpowder  and  that  he  had 
experimented  with  the  steam-engine  as  well  as  with  a 
number  of  chemical  compounds.     Taking  up  his  doctrines 

1  C.   1 2 14-1294. 


240  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

briefly,  we  may  note  that  he  criticised  the  Fathers  for 
Epending  too  little  time  in  studying  the  ancient  languages, 
and  thus  by  neglect  of  them  failing  to  understand  the 
wisdom  of  the  ancients.  Furthermore,  he  declared  that 
no  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  can  be  had  without 
knowing  Hebrew  and  Greek,  or  that  philosophy  can  be 
thoroughly  pursued  without  studying  Arabic/  All  current 
translations  are  inaccurate,  because  the  translators  are  not 
familiar  with  foreign  words  and  leave  many  of  them 
standing  in  the  text;  whereas  Bacon  says  very  acutely, 
that  a  translator  ought  to  be  familiar,  not  only  with  the 
language  that  he  is  translating  and  also  his  own  language, 
but  likewise  with  the  subject  to  which  the  text  relates. 
These  are  golden  words,  and  they  deserve  the  serious  at-' 
tention  of  modern  publishers. 

Bacon  says  that  there  are  not  five  men  in  the  Western 
world  who  are  acquainted  with  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Arabic 
grammar.  He  shrewdly  notes  the  difference  between 
having  a  purely  colloquial  knowledge  of  any  language  and 
a  knowledge  which  is  scientific,  which  goes  down  to  the 
very  foundations,  and  which  is  therefore  the  knowledge  of 
a  philosophical  linguist.  Bacon,  consequently,  insists  upon 
grammar,  grammar,  and  still  more  grammar;  and  in  this 
he  is  the  forerunner  of  a  philological  school  of  modern 
times.     He  criticises  even  the  errors  of  translation  to  be 

^  Referring  to  the  Arabic  translations  of  Aristotle  of  which  the  originals 
were  practically  unavailable  to  the  Western  world. 


THE   MroDLE   AGES  241 

found  in  the  Vulgate,  and  he  hits  hard  those  critic- 
asters who  have  ventured  to  change  the  text.  He  says: 
"  Every  one  has  the  impertinence  to  alter  whatever  he 
does  not  understand  —  a  thing  which  he  would  not  do  in 
the  case  of  classical  poets."  Here,  Bacon  drops  a  hint 
or  two  for  the  criticism  of  the  texts  of  the  Scriptures,  — 
hints  that  were  to  be  fruitful  in  the  time  of  Valla  and 
Erasmus.^ 

Bacon  was  by  no  means  one  who  merely  criticises  the 
work  of  others.  He  showed  his  interest  in  grammatical 
study  by  writing  a  Greek  grammar,  a  manuscript  of  which, 
now  in  the  library  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  has 
the  Greek  characters  beautifully  written  and  contains  a 
short  Greek  accidence  ending  with  a  paradigm  of  the  verb 
rvirra).^  A  Greek  lexicon  has  also  been  ascribed  to 
Bacon.  Nevertheless  there  was  little  Greek  known  to  the 
scholars  of  that  time,  and  at  Oxford  so  much  of  Aristotle 
as  was  read  was  read  in  a  Latin  translation.  It  is  worthy 
of  remembrance  that  another  Franciscan,  the  famous 
traveller,  Raimundus  Lullius,  tried  to  persuade,  first  the 
Pope  and  then  the  University  of  Paris,  to  establish  a  school 
of    oriental    languages    (Greek,   Arabic,  and  the  Tartar 

^  It  is  worth  noting  that  an  Oxford  scholar  of  this  time  spent  forty 
years  in  correcting  and  explaining  the  Vulgate.  Cf.  Martin,  La  Vulgate 
Laiine  an  xiii  s.  d'apres  Roger  Bacon  (Paris,  1888) ;  and  Gasquet  in  the 
Dublin  Review  for  January,  1898. 

2  Dr.  Sandys  observes  {op.  cit.  i.  p.  595)  that  "Bacon's own  knowledge 
of  Greek  was  mainly  derived  from  the  Greeks  of  his  time,  and  it  is  their 
pronunciation  that  he  invariably  adopts." 


242  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

dialects) ,  thus  anticipating  the  great  oriental  schools  which 
thrive  to-day  at  Paris  and  Berlin.^  Bacon's  opuscula, 
gathered  from  the  fragments  of  his  minor  work,  are  very 
interesting  as  showing  his  unusual  mental  activity.  He 
had  a  sort  of  glossary  of  Latin  words  derived  from  the 
Greek.  He  corrects  a  number  of  common  errors  in  spell- 
ing, quantity,  and  etymology.  He  tells  some  anecdotes, 
as,  for  instance,  that  he  himself  has  seen  the  Greek  text 
of  the  fifty  books  of  Aristotle's  Natural  History,  mentioned 
by  Pliny  (viii.  p.  17),  and  altogether  takes  us  back  to  the 
many-sided  curiosity  of  Aulus  Gellius.^  Altogether  he  is 
very  fairly  described  by  Hallam  in  a  single  sentence :  "  The 
mind  of  Roger  Bacon  was  strangely  compounded  of  almost 
prophetic  gleams  of  the  future  course  of  science  and  the 
best  principles  of  the  inductive  philosophy,  with  a  more 
than  usual  credulity  in  the  superstitions  of  his  own 
time." ' 

Mediasvalism  is  something  very  difficult  to  understand, 
and  many  views  are  taken  of  it.  Its  spirit,  when  properly 
apprehended,  was  certainly  not  a  spirit  of  desolation  and 
decay.     It  sprang  out  of  the  ruins  of  antique  greatness 

1  Rashdall,  op.  cit.  ii.  p.  96. 

^  See  supra,  p.  188. 

'  There  is  an  edition  of  Bacon's  works  edited  by  Brewer  (London, 
1859).  A  very  excellent  and  comprehensive  study  of  Bacon  is  that  by 
Charles  (Paris,  1861) ;  and  a  later  monograph  by  Parrot,  Roger  Bacon,  sa 
Personne,  son  Genie,  ses  CEuvres  el  ses  Contemporains  (Paris,  1894).  His 
Greek  grammar  was  published,  with  notes  and  an  introduction,  by  the 
University  of  Cambridge  (Cambridge,  1892). 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  243 

from  which  it  drew  much  of  its  own  loiowledge,  though 
often  without  any  consciousness  of  its  value.  The  Middle 
Ages  appear  to  some  as  having  been  wholly  a  time  of 
gloom  when  intellectual  pursuits  were  discouraged,  partly 
through  lack  of  loiowledge,  and  partly  by  the  discourage- 
ment which  came  from  an  almost  savage  environment, 
pierced  only  here  and  there  by  rays  of  light  and  glints  of 
colour.  Yet  in  reality  the  true  Middle  Ages  were  very 
different  from  this  description.  There  was  a  gradual  pro- 
cess of  assimilation,  by  which  the  highest  thought  of  an- 
tiquity was  to  be  transformed  into  something  different 
and  new.  So  we  have  the  blending  of  the  pagan  past 
and  the  Christian  present,  combining  what  was  beautiful 
in  the  antique  world  with  what  was  spiritual  in  the  Chris- 
tian teaching.  As  we  look  at  Mediaevalism  it  often  shocks 
us,  since  so  much  raw  brutality  was  everywhere  in  con- 
tact with  that  which  was  in  the  end  to  master  it.  We 
seem  at  first  to  be  standing  on  the  borders  of  a  dark  and 
almost  fearful  waste,  from  within  which  v/e  can  hear  the 
rending  sound  of  continuous  devastation.  Yet  when  we 
give  our  patient  study  to  it,  we  grow  conscious  that  the 
process  is  not  one  of  destruction,  but  rather  of  germi- 
nation. Instead  of  a  chilling  cold,  there  is  something 
warm  and  stimulating,  that  is  always  noticeable. 

Thus  its  Art  may  have  been  rude,  yet  the  originality 
of  it  has  appealed  most  strongly  to  artists  of  modem  times, 
while  the  grandeur  of  its  Gothic  architecture  attains  the 


244  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

height  of  the  sublime.  Even  its  Philosophy,  as  wrought 
out  by  the  scholastics,  has  been  revived  and  has  flourished 
for  two  centuries,  not  merely  within  the  great  schools  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  but  among  men  of  every  mode  of  thought, 
from  Kant  to  Leo  XIII.^  As  to  the  political  side  —  the 
clash  of  principalities  and  powers  and  the  almost  incessant 
strife  of  kings  and  popes  and  mercantile  communities,  — 
Professor  J.  W.  Burgess  has  admirably  written :  — 

"Men  have  been  wont  to  call  the  Middle  Ages,  'Dark  Ages.'  On 
the  contrary,  they  are  full  of  light.  In  them  the  great  questions 
of  the  relationship  of  individual  right  to  political  right,  of  local 
government  to  central  government,  and  of  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment to  secular  government,  were  raised  and  drawn  into  conscious 
consideration.  Had  the  European  empire  of  Charlemagne  been 
perpetuated,  Europe  might  have  become  a  second  China,  but  would 
never  have  been  what  it  is  —  viz.,'  the  source  of  the  civilization  of 
the  modern  world.  The  unceasing  conflicts  of  the  Middle  Ages 
between  private  right  and  public  law,  local  government  and  central 
government,  state  authority  and  Church  authority,  were  necessary 
to  bring  men  out  from  under  the  monotony  of  slavish  subjection 
to  the  artificial,  external  Church-state  system  of  the  Carlovingian 
empire,  and  develop  them  by  the  antagonism  of  thought  and  will 
into  the  power  of  producing  systems  more  reflected  and  more  free." 

In  Letters  and  Learning,  we  owe  a  great  debt  to  the 
Middle  Ages.  For  a  time,  the  fanaticism  of  the  Early 
Church  destroyed  much;    but  from  the  eighth  century  a 

^  See  Picavet's  remarkable  monograph  entitled  Esquisse  d'une  Histoire 
Generate  et  Comparee  des  Civilisalions  Medievales  (Paris,  1905) ;  and 
Perrier,  The  Revival  of  Scholastic  Philosophy  (New  York,  1909).  See  also 
AJlbutt,  Science  and  Mediccval  Thought,  pp.  72,  78  foil.  (London,  1895). 


THE   MIDDLE    AGES  245 

great  deal  was  done  to  preserve  and  transmit  the  classical 
tradition,  although  by  no  means  in  the  classical  spirit. 
The  use  of  Latin  as  a  lingua  franca,  even  in  a  corrupted 
form,  made  of  it  a  thread  that  pierced  the  mazes  of  the 
mediaeval  labyrinth.  One  recalls  the  names  of  the  great 
hymn  writers,  of  the  great  teachers,  from  Alcuin  and  his  im- 
mediate pupils,  such  as  Rabanus  Maurus,  who  lectured  at 
Fulda,  Servatus  Lupus,  Walafrid,  who  was  in  literature  the 
precursor  of  Dante,'  John  of  Salisbury,  who  was  a  mighty 
figure  in  English  classical  scholarship,  Joseph  of  Exeter, 
Albertus  Magnus,^  Thomas  Aquinas,  his  favourite  pupil, 
and  finally  Roger  Bacon  himself,  who  stands,  as  it  were, 
not  far  from  Dante  in  the  first  faint  light  of  the  com- 
ing Renaissance.  As  we  have  seen,  many  of  the  Latin 
classics  were  read  in  part  and  some  of  them  in  their  entirety. 
Many  that  were  not  read  were  nevertheless  copied  in  the 
monastic  scriptoria.  Of  those  ancients  who  were  well 
known  (in  addition  to  the  Fathers)  are  Terence,  Horace 
(who  was  much  admired  by  Alcuin),  Ovid,  to  whom  many 
spurious  poems  were  ascribed,  Lucan,  who  was  supposed 
to  be  an  authority  on  geography  and  astrology,  Statius, 
Martial,  Juvenal,  who  with  Persius  was  esteemed  for  his 
stern  morality,  Cicero,  of  course,  with  the  younger  Seneca, 
the  Elder  Pliny,  Quintilian,  Cornelius  Nepos,  Caesar, 
Sallust,  Livy,  Suetonius,  and  the  historical  anecdotes  of 

^  See  Ker,  The  Dark  Ages,  p.  159  (New  York,  1904). 
*  See  d'Assailly,  Albert  le  Grand  (Paris,  1870). 


246  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Valerius  Maximus.  The  fragment  of  Petronius  De  Bello 
Civili  was  fairly  well  known,  and  was  used  for  reading  in 
the  schools.  Of  all  the  classics,  Vergil  held  the  foremost 
place  largely  because  he  was  believed  to  have  been  one 
of  the  "  Christians  before  Christ." 

As  to  the  adjuncts  of  classical  literature,  there  was  the 
small  grammar  of  Donatus  ^  and  many  compilations  of 
Priscian's  great  work,  of  which  there  exist  to-day  more 
than  a  thousand  manuscripts.  Sometimes  bits  of  text 
were  quoted  in  illustration  of  the  rules  of  grammar,  though 
this  was  unusual.^  There  were  also  produced  a  number 
of  lexicons,  or  rather  glossaries  and  vocabularies.  The 
mediaeval  teachers  used  to  dictate  to  their  students  word- 
lists  which  were  carefully  copied  and  then  often  abridged, 
corrected,  and  enlarged  according  as  they  passed  from  one 
possessor  to  another.  One  of  these  glossaries,  compiled 
as  early  as  the  ninth  century,  has  been  edited  with  a  com- 
mentary, while  containing  also  the  substance  of  twelve 
others.  Something  like  a  genuine  lexicon  was  produced 
by  one  Papias,  the  Lombard  scholar,  about  1063,  though 
it  was  in  reality  a  sort  of  encyclopaedia.  The  Low  Latin 
word  Dictionarium  did  not  come  into  use  for  a  long  time. 

^  Supra,  p.  184. 

*  See  the  monograph  on  grammar  contained  in  I.  Miiller's  Handbuch, 
V.  i  (Leipzig,  1902). 

'  Gottingen,  1854.  See  also  the  elaborate  description  of  mediaeval 
glossaries  in  Lowe,  Prodromus  Glossarioriim  Latinonim  (Leipzig,  1876). 
A  collection  of  these  glossaries  was  begun  in  1876  by  Goetz  under  the 
patronage  of  the  Royal  Literary  Society  of  Saxony. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  247 

Papias  called  his  own  dictionary,  Elementarium  Doc- 
trincB  Erudimentum.  It  circulated  in  manuscript  until 
after  the  invention  of  printing,  when  it  was  issued  at  Venice 
in  1491.  In  the  twelfth  century  an  English  monk,  Osbom 
of  Gloucester,  made  an  attempt  at  an  etymological  diction- 
ary, which  he  called  Panorama.  About  the  year  1200, 
Hugutio,  Bishop  of  Ferrara,  compiled  a  Liher  Deriva- 
tionum.  Eighty-six  years  later,  the  two  works  last  men- 
tioned were  used  by  Balbi  of  Genoa,  who  based  on  them 
his  famous  Catholicon,  which  was  not  only  a  manual  of 
grammar,  but  also  of  rhetoric  and  criticism,  with  a  rather 
extensive  lexicon  of  ecclesiastical  Latin,  These  were  the 
best  dictionaries  known  to  the  Middle  Ages/ 

Thus  far  we  have  regarded  the  Middle  Ages  wholly  in 
their  relation  to  the  history  of  Western  civilization,  from 
the  downfall  of  the  Western  Empire  to  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  It  remains  for  us  to  consider  here 
the  Eastern  or  Byzantine  Empire  (also  called  New  Rome) , 
which  had  its  seat  at  Constantinople  (Byzantium)  and 
which  outlived  the  Western  Empire  by  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years.  The  Eastern  Empire  was  practically  estab- 
lished in  A.D.  330,  when  Constantine  made  Byzantium  the 
capital  of  the  whole  Roman  world;  but  the  actual  breach 
between  the  East  and  West  came  in  a.d.  395.    In  that  year 

*  See  the  monograph  on  Lexicography  in  I.  Miiller's  Handhuch,  i. 
(Nordlingen,  1902) ;  De  Vit,  Preface  to  the  Lexicon  of  Forcellini  (Prato, 
1879) ;  Mahn,  Darstellimg  der  Lexicographic  nach  alien  ihreti  Seiien 
(Rudolstadt,  181 7). 


248  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  Roman  Empire  was  divided  between  the  two  sons  of 
Theodosius.  Arcadius  took  the  Eastern  half,  with  his 
capital  at  Constantinople,  while  Honorius  received  the 
Western  half,  with  his  capital  at  Rome.  The  long  and 
tangled  history  of  the  Eastern  Empire  is  the  record  of 
constant  strife,  sedition,  folly,  treachery,  misgovemment, 
and  murder.  Thus  it  has  been  neglected  until  the  last  few 
years.  Even  Gibbon  called  it  "  a  tedious  and  uniform 
tale  of  weakness  and  misery."  Montesquieu  sweepingly 
declared  that  "  the  history  of  the  Greek  Empire  from 
Phocas  on  was  merely  a  succession  of  revolts,  schisms, 
and  treacheries."  Taine  vividly  condemned  it  as  being 
"  a  gigantic  mouldiness,  lasting  a  thousand  years." 

It  has  been  computed  that  of  the  107  persons  who  ruled 
from  395  to  1453  (when  Constantinople  was  stormed  by 
the  Turks),  20  were  murdered,  18  were  mutilated,  12  died 
in  a  monastery  or  a  prison,  12  abdicated,  3  starved  to 
death,  8  died  in  warfare  —  in  all,  73  out  of  107  met  with 
violence  or  disgrace.  Perhaps  the  best  excuse  for  the 
existence  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  it  formed  for  centuries  a  barrier  between  Asia  and 
Western  Europe,  so  that  the  latter  had  time  to  attain  cohe- 
sion and  a  sort  of  unity  of  purpose,  to  develop  a  new 
civilisation  and  the  military  power  necessary  to  repel 
wild  hordes,  such  as  the  Saracens  whom  Charles  Martel 
shattered  at  Tours  in  the  eighth  century,  or  the  Turks  who 
were  hurled  back  from  Vienna  in  the  sixteenth  century. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  249 

If  we  look  more  carefully  into  the  history  of  Byzantium 
in  its  later  years,  we  shall  find  that  while  religious  schisms, 
civil  wars,  and  violence  of  every  kind  shook  it  to  its  centre, 
there  are  everywhere  traces  of  the  older  Roman  spirit, 
surviving  and  making  themselves  visible.  Indeed,  the 
history  of  Old  Rome  is  very  largely  a  history  of  civil  war, 
and  so  we  must  not  be  surprised  that  New  Rome  showed 
many  of  the  same  characteristics.  It  differed  from  Old 
Rome  in  being  far  more  oriental.  Its  rulers  were  despots; 
its  people  were,  as  has  been  said  of  the  Parisians,  "  half 
tiger  and  half  ape."  In  other  words,  princes  and  populace 
alike  alternated  between  the  most  childish  amusements 
and  the  most  bloody  strife.^  Yet,  it  had  the  Roman  power 
of  assimilation,  and  of  recuperation  after  periods  of  ex- 
hausting warfare.  Some  of  its  emperors,  such  as  Con- 
stantine  Copronymus  (741-773),  were  great  soldiers  and 
organised  more  effective  armies  than  the  world  had  yet 
seen.  The  boundaries  of  the  Empire  were  extended,  both 
in  Asia  and  Europe.  Again  and  again  the  administration 
was  reformed  and  commerce  stimulated.  Against  the 
Hungarians,  the  Turks,  the  Armenians,  and  the  Bulgars, 
successful   wars  were  waged.'     Byzantium   itself  was  a 

1  For  a  diverting  account  of  life  in  Byzantium,  see  Marrast,  Esquisses 
Byzanlines  (Paris,  1874). 

2  See  Gibbon,  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  edited  by 
Bury  (Cambridge,  1899);  Bury,  A  History  of  the  Later  Roman  Empire 
(London,  1890) ;  and  Oman,  The  Story  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  (London 
and  New  York,  1892). 


250  HISTORY   or   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

magnificent  city.  Rome  on  the  Tiber  was  ransacked  to 
make  the  new  capital  deserve  the  title  of  "  Imperial." 
Statues  and  paintings  and  jewels  gleamed  and  flashed  in 
all  its  public  buildings.  Its  architecture  has  been  styled 
"  the  complete  monumental  expression  of  Greek  Chris- 
tendom," It  was  the  Greek  architectural  genius  which 
chose  the  Roman  dome  as  its  fundamental  unit/in  place  of 
the  wooden  roof,  and  then,  by  using  lofty  piers,  was  able 
to  suspend  the  dome  and  use  it  with  any  kind  of  ground- 
plan.  Domes  were  even  multiplied  at  will;  and  this  (with 
semi-domes)  is  characteristic  of  the  Byzantine  architecture 
wherever  it  can  be  found,  especially  in  the  great  master- 
pieces of  St.  Sophia  and  the  Church  of  the  Apostles  in 
Constantinople,  as  well  as  in  many  churches  in  Russia, 
Northern  Italy,  and  Asia  Minor.  In  fact,  the  Byzantine 
types  were  Grasco-Asiatic  in  their  origin,  and  this  is 
why  they  suggest  at  once  an  Orientalism  which  we  can  trace 
in  almost  everything  which  the  Eastern  Empire  originated. 
As  for  other  forms  of  art,  there  are  few  remains  of 
Byzantine  Sculpture,  partly  because  there  existed,  first, 
an  oriental  lack  of  skill  in  drawing  the  figure,  and  second, 
because  many  of  the  Greek  Christians  were  iconoclastic 
in  the  literal  sense.  Fresco-painting,  Mosaic,  and  Panel- 
painting  were  practised  by  the  artists  of  Byzantium. 
Most  of  the  frescoes  and  panels  have  now  disappeared. 
It  is  only  from  the  mosaics  made  prior  to  the  tAvelfth  cen- 
tury that  modem  archaeologists  can  get  any  good  idea  of 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  251 

the  early  Byzantine  painting.  We  know,  however,  that  it 
greatly  influenced  the  Christian  artists  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  it  was  felt  even  in  the  later  frescoes  in  the 
catacombs  at  Rome.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century,  the  Italian  States  and  the  Norman  Kingdom  at 
the  South  imported  Byzantine  artists  in  mosaic  who  trained 
Italian  pupils  and  thus  spread  the  Byzantine  influence 
throughout  Italy,  It  is  in  the  Minor  Arts,  however,  which 
have  to  do  with  decoration,  such  as  the  illuminating  of 
manuscripts  with  gorgeous  colours,  ivory  carving,  tapestry 
weaving,  rug-making,  and  the  carving  of  cameos,  together 
with  embossing,  chasing,  and  enamelling  the  most  exqui- 
site bits  of  gold  work,  that  the  skill  of  the  Byzantine  artists 
was  supreme.^ 

Byzantine  Literature  has  in  itself  (with  one  excep- 
tion) ^  very  little  to  interest  any  one  save  the  historian. 
Scholars  and  priests  of  Byzantium  wrote  innumerable 
tracts  and  controversial  treatises,  which  have  mostly  per- 
ished, as  they  deserved  to  do.  The  Byzantine  Histo- 
rians form  a  group  of  writers  who  busied  themselves 
with  the  history  of  the  Eastern  Empire  down  to  its 
destruction  by  the  Turks,  and  there  were  some  who 
kept  on  writing  even  after  that.  Five  of  them  have  con- 
siderable value.     These  are  Zonaras,  Nicetas,  Nicephorus, 

1  See  Texier  and  Pullan,  Byzantine  Architecture  (London,  1894) ; 
Essenwein,  Byzantinische  Baukunst  (Darmstadt,  1896) ;  Bayet,  L'Art 
Byzantin  (Paris,  1892). 

2  See  infra,  pp.  254-257. 


252  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Chalcondylas,  and  Procopius.  The  first  four  of  these 
give  a  continuous  history  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  from 
its  beginning  down  to  the  year  1470.  Procopius  is  noted 
as  a  collector  of  scandalous  stories  which  he  jotted  down 
in  his  Anecdota,  or  "  secret  history."  In  it  he  gives  his 
private  notes  relating  to  the  court-life  with  which  he  was 
very  intimate;  and  the  book  reminds  one  of  some  of  the 
French  memoirs  which  reveal  to  us  the  piquant  sayings 
and  doings  of  the  French  court  under  the  old  regime. 
This  book  of  Procopius  was  not  published  until  after  his 
death.  It  is  written  in  a  fresh  and  interesting  style,  and  in 
consequence  has  been  read  more  than  almost  any  other 
production  of  the  Byzantine  historians.^  There  are 
fifteen  other  writers  of  Byzantine  history  whose  united 
works  are  published  with  a  Latin  translation  in  the  Corpus 
Scriptorum  Historice  ByzantincE? 

Really  remarkable  among  the  Byzantine  writings  is 
the  codification  of  the  Roman  Law  made  by  the  Byzantine 
lawyer,  Tribonianus,  an  Asiatic  Greek,  at  the  command  of 
the  Emperor  lustinianus.     It  was  a  collection  of  authori- 

1  For  a  separate  edition  of  Procopius,  including  his  orations,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  Dindorf,  3  vols.  (Bonn,  1838).  There  is  an  old  and 
rare  translation  of  Procopius  into  English  by  Holcroft  (London,  1663). 
The  most  amusing  or  startling  passages  of  Procopius  were  transferred  by 
Gibbon  to  the  footnotes  of  his  Decline  and  Fall. 

'In  36  vols.,  edited  by  Labbe  (Paris,  1711;  reprinted  at  Venice  in 
1733)-  A  similar  collection  in  48  vols,  was  begun  at  Bonn  in  1828,  but 
is  badly  executed,  although  parts  of  it  were  done  by  such  distinguished 
scholars  as  Niebuhr,  Bekker,  and  the  brothers  Dindorf. 


THE   MIDDLE    AGES  253 

ties,  and  to  it  we  owe  the  treasures  of  ancient  jurisprudence 
which  must  otherwise  have  been  lost.  The  whole  has  been 
known  since  the  sixteenth  century  as  the  Corpus  luris 
Civilis.^ 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  so  much  of  the  literature  of  the 
Eastern  Empire  as  has  been  preserved  was  of  a  formal 
and  not  very  artistic  character.  Doubtless  the  populace 
had  its  own  ephemeral  prose  and  verse,  of  which  there  are 
some  fragments  left,  —  for  instance,  in  the  so-called  politici 
versus  (a-Tixoi  ttoXitlkoi)  written  in  popular  metres, 
and  the  cheap  novels  composed  by  Theodorus  Prodromus 
of  Constantinople.  He  was  imitated  by  Nicetas  Euge- 
nianus,  and  there  are  also  eleven  books  on  the  adventures 
of  Hysmine  and  Hysminias,  which  are  perhaps  the  original 
source  of  the  world-famous  story  of  Don  Juan.^ 

To  Byzantine  Scholarship,  Classical  Philology  owes  an 
enduring  debt.  The  learned  men  of  Byzantium  lacked 
originality,  but  they  had  the  gift  of  patience  to  an  ex- 
traordinary degree.  Like  the  historians,  they  were  tireless 
in  collecting  scraps  and  fragments,  in  making  up  excerpts 
and  compilations,  and  in  this  way  preserving  the  wealth  of 
rich  material  for  modem  times.  Almost  all  their  material 
was  derived  at  second  hand,  whether  it  was  lexicographic, 

^  It  is  in  four  parts,  known  as  (a)  Codex  I usiinianeus ;  (b)  Pandectoe  or 
Digesta;  {c)  Institutiones ;  (d)  Novellas,  this  last  mostly  written  in  Greek. 
Edited  by  Moramsen  and  others. 

^  See  Waxman,  The  Don  Juan  Legend  in  Literature,  in  Journal  of 
American  Folk-Lore  (April,  Sept.),  1908. 


254  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

historical,  or  etymological.  Thus  Photius  (c.  820-c.  891) 
wrote  many  things,  among  them  two  volumes  which 
are  of  great  service  to  the  student  of  the  Greek  language 
and  literature.  He  was  sent  as  an  ambassador  to  Assyria 
and  beguiled  his  stay  there  by  making  abstracts  of  280 
books,  many  of  which  are  now  lost.  Sometimes  he  varied/ 
his  abstracts  by  criticisms  and  comments  so  that  the  whole, 
w^hich  is  called  Myrobiblion^  (MvpLo^i^Xiov),  gives 
us  a  synopsis  of  much  ancient  and  valuable  literature. 
Remarkable  for  its  extent  and  for  its  preservation  of  early 
historians  was  the  encyclopaedia  of  history  compiled  by 
one  of  the  emperors,  Constantinus  Porphyrogenetus 
(reigned  from  915  to  959).  This  book  was  something  like 
the  Historian's  History  of  recent  times,  since,  while  it 
was  arranged  according  to  the  subject-matter,  its  text  was 
that  of  the  earlier  authors  who  had  treated  these  themes. 

An  extremely  important  work  in  the  growth  of  Lexi- 
cography is  the  Lexicon  of  Suidas  {c.  976).  This  is  a 
remarkable  monument  to  the  erudition  which  is  encyclo- 
paedic. The  sources  upon  which  Suidas  drew  are  still 
only  partly  known;  but  his  reading  must  have  been  mon- 
strous in  its  scope  and  range,  as  his  book  is  almost  mon- 
strous, rudis  indigestaque  moles.  It  is  a  grammar,  lexicon, 
and  geography  all  in  one.  The  subjects  are  arranged  in 
alphabetical  order,  but  with  little  care  or  skill,  and  it  is  full 

1  See  Krumbacher  in  Muller's  Handhiich,  ix.  i  (Nordlingen,  1897), 
pp.  1 193  foil.;   Hergenrother,  Fholios,  3  vols. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  255 

of  serious  mistakes  which  show  that  Suidas  was  not  pos- 
sessed of  the  critical  spirit.  Still,  the  work  is  extremely 
valuable  because  it  contains  so  much  information  that  can 
be  found  nowhere  else.^ 

Following  Suidas  came  loannes  Tzetzes,  who  was  also  a 
very  voluminous  writer,  mainly  of  scholia;  for  besides  his 
allegories  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  in  ten  thousand  verses 
(hence  Chiliades),  interpreting  Homeric  mythology  in  a 
rationalistic  way,  he  prepared  a  commentary  to  the  Iliad, 
the  Pseudo-Homeric  works,  and  has  left  scholia  to  Hesiod, 
to  Aristophanes,  to  Oppian,  and  especially  to  Lycophron's 
Alexandra.  Here  he  gives  us  the  only  clew  that  we  have 
to  that  obscure  and  mystical  poem.^  He  also  epitomised 
the  rhetoric  of  Hermogenes.  He  was  fond  of  writing 
the  so-called  versus  politici.^  Eustathius,  Archbishop  of 
Thessalonica,  wrote  about  1175  a  valuable  commentary  on 
the  Homeric  poems  which  is  based  upon  sound  Homeric 
scholia  and  other  excellent  sources,  while  we  also  have 
from  his  pen  a  fine  preface  to  a  commentary  on  Pindar. 
The  body  of  this  work  itself  has  been  lost.''   From  the  stand- 

1  The  best  edition  is  that  of  Bekker  (Berlin,  1854),  but  see  also  the 
Prolegomena  to  Bernhardy's  edition,  pp.  25-95,  ^^^  Krumbacher,  o/».  cit. 
pp.  562-570. 

2  Supra,  p.  loi.  Some  think  that  this  work  was  written  by  his  brother, 
Isaac  Tzetzes.     See  Hart,  De  Tzelzanim  Nomine,  Vila,  Scriptis  (18S0). 

'  Supra,  p.  loi.  His  works  are  edited  separately  by  Bekker  (Berlin, 
1816),  the  Chiliades  by  Kiessling  (Leipzig,  1826),  and  Lehrs  (Leipzig, 
1840).     See  Krumbacher,  op.  cit.  pp.  526-536. 

*  See  Krumbacher,  pp.  536-541.  The  preface  to  Pindar  has  been 
edited  by  Schneidewin   (Gottingen,  1837). 


256  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

point  of  pure  literature,  the  most  interesting  Byzantine 
writer  is  Maximus  Planudes  (1260-13 10).  Though  he 
wrote  schoHa  and  a  treatise  on  syntax,  it  is  more  to  the 
point  that  he  translated  into  Greek  a  number  of  Latin 
authors  such  as  Caesar,  a  part  of  Cicero,  the  sayings 
{disticha)  of  Cato,  the  MetamorpJwses  of  Ovid,  and  espe- 
cially the  Heroides  of  Ovid,  basing  his  translation  on  a 
valuable  manuscript  which  is  now  unknown.  Most 
important  of  all  is  the  Anthology  which  he  compiled  with 
much  taste  and  which  is  the  younger  of  the  two  great 
Greek  Anthologies.  This  one  is  called  Anthologia 
Planudea.  It  was  really  based  on  earlier  anthologies, 
the  first  having  been  made  by  Meleager  of  Gadara  about 
B.C.  60.  To  it  Meleager  gave  the  title  'AvdoXoyta,  or 
"  The  Garland."  This  original  Anthology  was  made  up 
of  poems  by  Meleager  himself  and  forty-six  other  poets, 
including  Alcaeus,  Anacreon,  Sappho,  and  Simonides. 
The  poems  were  all  of  the  first  order  and  were  epigram- 
matic in  the  Greek  sense,  —  briefly  embodying  a  single 
thought,  either  tender  or  humorous  or  pathetic,  and  all  of 
them  exquisitely  polished,  so  that  they  glowed  and  glinted 
with  light  and  colour.  This  work  was  immensely  popular, 
and  continual  editions  were  made  to  it  throughout  the 
centuries,  until  in  the  tenth  century  a.d.  one  Cephalas 
edited  the  mass  of  poems  and  made  practically  a  new 
compilation.  Planudes  did  the  same,  though  with  far  less 
literary  taste.     Nevertheless  the  Planudean  Anthology  was 


THE   MIDDLE    AGES  257 

the  only  one  known  in  Western  Europe  until  the  seven- 
teenth century.  It  is  the  basis  of  the  famous  translation 
by  Grotius.^  In  1606,  Salmasius  (Claude  de  Saumaise) 
found  in  the  library  at  Heidelberg  the  older  and  finer 
collection  of  Cephalas.  This,  however,  was  not  published 
for  one  hundred  and  seventy  years,  when  it  was  included 
by  Brunck  in  his  Analecta;  nor  was  it  critically  edited 
until  there  appeared  the  edition  of  F.  Jacobs  in  1803.2 
No  skill  and  no  modern  language  can  fitly  and  artistically 
translate  these  wonderful  poems.  They  are  the  embodi- 
ment of  Greek  genius,  and  they  sweep  the  whole  gamut 
of  human  feeling  with  a  sureness  of  touch  and  an  exqui- 
site artistry  that  are  utterly  inimitable. 

Another  means  by  which  Western  civilisation  was  mod- 
ified came  from  the  Crusades,  which  indirectly  brought 
Western  Europe  into  contact  with  the  Byzantines,  and  also 
with  the  Turks,  Saracens,  and  Arabs.  The  First  Crusade 
occupied  the  years  1096-1099.  The  Seventh  or  last  Cru- 
sade began  in  1270  and  ended  in  1272.  It  is  impossible 
that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Europeans  could  have  be- 

1  Infra,  p.  349. 

^  In  13  vols.;  revised  in  181 7.  A  recent  edition  is  that  in  Didot's 
Bibliotheca  (Paris,  1872),  while  a  fine  critical  edition  was  begun  by 
Stadtmiiller  in  1894.  See  Thackeray's  Anthologia  Grceca  with  English 
notes  (London,  1877)  and  Mackail,  Select  Epigrams  (London,  1891). 
Stadtmiiller  has  added  to  the  Palatine  collection  a  number  of  the  most 
brilliant  poems  from  ante-classical  sources  down  through  the  Byzantine 
period,  so  that,  in  all,  not  less  than  three  hundred  poets  are  repiesented. 
The  Heidelberg  collection  is  called  Anthologia  Palatina. 
s 


258  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

come  acquainted  with  the  ways  and  customs  and  art  and 
learning  of  older  civilisations  than  their  own  without  re- 
ceiving impressions  which  they  carried  home  with  them. 
In  fact,  the  Crusades  are  generally  held  to  hav^  checked 
the  advance  of  the  Muhammadans,  to  have  enr^hed  Eu- 
rope by  promoting  trade  and  establishing  new  industries, 
by  bringing  into  circulation  great  quantities  of  money 
which  had  hitherto  been  hoarded,  and  by  making  more  im- 
portant the  free  cities  of  Europe.  Finally  and  most  per- 
vasive was  the  intellectual  effect  of  contact  with  the  higher 
culture  of  the  Byzantines  and  Arabs.  Those  Europeans 
who  had  been  fond  of  philosophy  found  in  the  sages  of 
the  East  men  who  were  their  masters,  and  who  could  teach 
them  even  Greek  philosophy  far  better  than  they  could 
learn  it  in  the  schools  and  universities  of  their  native  lands. 
This  led  to  a  certain  toleration,  and  often  to  a  liberality 
of  thought  which  verged  on  skepticism.  Some  Crusaders 
even  became  Muhammadans.  As  has  been  said,  "  The 
roots  of  the  Renaissance  are  to  be  found  in  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Crusades."  ^ 

So  much  for  Byzantine  and  oriental  influence  through- 

^  See  Wilken,  Geschichte  der  Kreuzziige,  7  vols.  (Leipzig,  1807-183  2)  ; 
Michaud,  The  History  of  the  Crusades,  Eng.  trans.  (London,  1881)  ;  Kug- 
ler,  Geschichte  der  Kreuzziige  (Berlin,  1891)  ;  Von  Sybel,  Geschichte  des 
ersten  Kreuzziiges  (Leipzig,  1900)  ;  Archer  and  Kingsford,  The  Crusades 
(New  York,  1898) ;  Rohricht,  Geschichte  des  Konigreichs  Jerusalem 
(Berlin,  1898)  ;  and  especially  Prutz,  Kulturschichte  der  Kreuzziige  (Ber- 
lin, 1898). 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  259 

out  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  for  the  most  part  represented 
by  men  of  erudition  rather  than  of  taste,  who  turned  their 
backs  in  large  measure  on  the  old  learning  in  order  to 
engage  in  theological  controversy  or  political  strife.  But 
they  at  any  rate  preserved  the  manuscripts  of  the  true 
Greeks,  and  they  were  to  exercise  a  direct  influence  at  a 
time  when  the  mist  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  dispelled  in 
Western  Europe  and  when  mankind  awoke  to  what  was 
a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth. ^ 

*  On  the  literature  of  the  Byzantines,  see  Krumbacher,  op.  ciL;  Wil- 
amowitz,  Euripides  und  Herakles,  i.  pp.  193-219;  Gibbon,  op.  cit.,  and 
Hankius,  De  Byzantinarum  Reriim  Scriptoribus  Gmcis  (Leipzig,  1677). 
Cf.  also  Sandys,  op.  cit.  i.  pp.  387-439 ;  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison's  Byz- 
antine  History  in  the  Early  Middle  Ages,  p.  36  (London,  1900).  It  is  in- 
teresting, though  inexplicable,  that  Dr.  Gudeman  in  his  Outlines  of  the 
History  of  Classical  Philology  should  have  devoted  nearly  five  pages  to 
the  Byzantine  scholars  of  the  Middle  Ages,  while  the  scholarship  of  West- 
ern Europe  for  nearly  a  thousand  years  is  put  off  with  a  mere  bibho- 
graphic  notice  filling  half  a  page. 


VI 


THE    RENAISSANCE 

The  Renaissance  —  the  most  remarkable  intellectual 
movement  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  —  is  too  often 
regarded  as  being  primarily  nothing  more  than  an  intel- 
lectual reversion  to  the  great  models  of  classical  antiquity, 
—  as  being  almost  exclusively  literary,  artistic,  and  archae- 
ological. Yet  this  is  only  a  narrow  and  imperfect  view. 
The  Renaissance  which  began  in  Italy  was  rather  a  pro- 
found and  far-reaching  revolt  against  the  narrowness 
and  mental  routine  of  mediaevalism.  It  was  the  waking 
of  humanity  in  Western  Europe  from  a  prolonged  lethargy, 
to  burst  all  the  fetters  that  ages  of  tiresome  tradition  had 
forged  for  it,  and  to  struggle  up  into  the  sunlight  of  intel- 
lectual freedom.  It  was  a  great  declaration  of  indepen- 
dence, the  effects  of  which  were  ultimately  to  be  felt  in 
every  sphere  of  human  activity.  In  philosophy  it  over- 
threw scholasticism.  In  religion  it  paved  the  way  directly 
for  the  so-called  Reformation.  In  art  it  inspired  the  mas- 
terpieces of  Michelangelo,  Rafaelle,  and  Da  Vinci  in  Italy, 
and  the  great  schools  of  painting  that  soon  afterward 
sprang  up  in  the  Netherlands  and  Flanders.  In  archi- 
tecture   it    restored    the    beautiful    classic    models.      In 

260 


THE   RENAISSANCE  26 1 

politics  it  finally  abolished  feudalism  by  giving  birth 
to  the  sentiment  of  nationality,  and  sowing  the  seed  from 
which  constitutional  government  was  to  spring.  In  sci- 
ence it  made  astronomy  truly  scientific  through  Coper- 
nicus and  Galileo.  It  invented  printing  and,  by  the 
employment  of  the  compass,  was  enabled  to  discover  the 
New  World  and  the  Indian  Ocean.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible to  exaggerate  the  tremendous  and  far-reaching  influ- 
ence of  this  wonderful  movement  whose  effects  have  per- 
meated every  department  of  intellectual  effort  and  left 
enduring  traces  in  every  sphere  of  modem  life. 

The  Renaissance  began  in  the  field  of  scholarship, 
and  for  our  purposes  we  need  consider  its  importance 
only  from  that  particular  point  of  view.  One  of  the  first 
significant  signs  of  the  coming  change  is  to  be  seen  in 
Dante,^  who  not  only  broke  away  from  mediaeval  tradition 
in  using  the  vernacular  Italian  verse,  while  taking  Vergil 
as  his  model,  but  who  likewise  wrote  a  number  of  treatises 
in  the  Latin  language  that  were  the  foreshadowing  of  the 
new  spirit.  In  one  way,  Dante  does  not  belong  to  the 
history  of  the  Renaissance.  He  is  in  many  ways  a  pure 
mediaeval  in  his  sympathy  with  the  world  for  which  he 
wrote;  yet  in  a  large  sense  he  is  truly  the  herald  of  the 
coming  dawn.  *'In  him  the  modern  mind  first  found  its 
scope  and  recognised  its  freedom;  first  dared  and  did 
what  placed  it  on  a  level  with  antiquity  in  art.     Many 

*  1265-1321. 


262  HISTORY    or    CLASSICAL   PHLLOLOGY 

ideas,  moreover,  destined  to  play  an  important  part  in  the 
coming  age  received  from  him  their  germinal  expression. 
It  may  thus  be  truly  said  that  Dante  initiated  the  moWe- 
ment  of  the  modem  intellect  in  its  entirety,  though  he  did 
not  lead  the  Revival  considered  as  a  separate  movement 
in  this  evolution."  *  The  Renaissance  in  its  first  period 
began  in  Italy  (i 250-1 453),  and  was  marked  by  a  wide- 
spread revival  of  interest  in  classic  literature  and  classical 
ideals.  Its  first  sign  was  a  passion  for  the  largeness  and 
the  richness  of  the  pagan  world,  and  this  we  see  in  the 
vigour  and  magnificence  of  Dante's  own  verse,  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  dull  formalism  of  those  who  had  before  his 
time  written  for  the  mediaevals.^ 

It  is  a  popular  error  which  ascribes  the  Renaissance 
to  the  influence  of  the  Byzantine  Greeks.  Some  wrongly 
say  that  after  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks 
in  1453,  many  scholars  and  writers  fled  westward  and  im- 
parted their  learning  and  their  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
classics  to  the  Western  peoples,  especially  in  Italy.  But, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Renaissance  began  at  least  a 
century  before  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  as  can  easily 
be  seen  by  considering  the  brilliant  career,  not  merely  of 
Dante,  but  of  the  true  protagonist  of  this  period,  Francesco 
Petrarca,  whom  we  shall  mention  a  little  later.     We  have 

*  Symonds,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy,  p.  69. 

*  See  Federn,  Dante  and  His  Time,  Eng.  trans.  (New  York,  1902)  ; 
and  Scartazzini,  A  Handbook  to  Dante,  Eng.  trans.  (Boston,  1897). 


THE    RENAISSANCE  263 

also  seen  that  Roger  Bacon,  who  flourished  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  composed  a  Greek  grammar  and  pronounced  his 
Greek  after  the  manner  of  the  Byzantines.  A  few  Greek 
teachers  of  eminence  had  been  known  in  Europe,^  but  they 
seem  to  have  excited  no  great  interest  outside  of  a  very 
small  set.  Nor  was  the  mediaeval  mind  necessarily 
cramped  and  its  culture  crude.  One  could  hardly  say 
that,  after  recalling  such  names  as  those  of  Gregory  the 
Great,  of  Cassiodorus,  Alcuin,  Charlemagne,  and  the  great 
scholars  and  teachers  who  were  best  known  in  France  and 
England.  The  Renaissance  means  rather  a  new  inspi- 
ration and  a  new  desire.  It  was  essentially  secular  and 
almost  pagan  in  its  irresponsibility,  its  love  of  life,  and  its 
thirst  for  mental  freedom.  The  mediaevals  had  been  al- 
most wholly  under  the  guidance  of  the  priesthood,  and 
their  chief  concern  had  been  with  the  mysteries  of  faith. 
Their  philosophy  was  ingenious,  but  it  was  very  narrow. 
It  could  split  hairs  most  dextrously,  but  finally  men  grew 
weary  of  the  splitting  of  hairs  and  shook  themselves  into 
a  realisation  of  what  a  larger  life  must  mean  for  them. 
So  the  Englishman,  William  of  Ockham,  expresses  the 
new  feeling  in  a  new  philosophy  of  Nominalism.  Mar- 
sigilo  of  Padua  teaches  the  importance  of  the  individual 
and  that  the  individual  has  a  right  to  think  and  organise 
as  seems  best  to  him.  Wiclif  in  England,  and  John  Huss 
in  Bohemia,  and  many  other  independent  minds  organised 

'  Boethius,  Isidorus,  Alcuin,  Rabanus  Maurus,  Bacon,  ct  al. 


264  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

at  their  pleasure  throughout  Europe.  They  taught  the 
importance  of  the  individual  Christian  to  Christianity 
and  the  right  of  individual  interpretation  of  the  Script\^res. 
A  brief  survey  of  Francesco  Petrarca's  activities  will  give 
an  understanding  of  what  was  actually  done  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  true  Renaissance.  It  was  he  who  took  the 
first  positive  steps  in  the  revival  of  learning.^  Possessing 
the  fire  and  the  passion  of  a  Catullus,  he  openly  revolted 
against  the  dimness  and  bareness  of  mediaevalism.  He 
reverted  with  an  almost  fierce  intensity  to  the  pagan  free- 
dom and  spontaneity  of  thought.  He  travelled  widely  and 
visited  the  learned  men  of  France  and  Germany  and  Flan- 
ders. He  saw  a  larger  world  than  his  predecessors  knew, 
and  he  took  a  more  comprehensive  view  of  human  life. 
His  poetic  instinct  and  exquisite  taste  rejected  the  dull 
writings  of  the  scholastics  with  their  barbarous  and  clumsy 
satires.  For  his  own  inspiration  he  went  to  Vergil,  and  in 
his  studies  he  enlarged  his  Latin  vocabulary  from  the  Cic- 
eronian and  Augustan  writers.  Apart  from  his  Italian 
verse,  he  composed  an  epic  in  Latin  entitled  Africa.  Its 
subject  was  the  Second  Punic  War,  and  it  was  received 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  can  now  scarcely  be  realised  or 
understood.  But  it  recalls  to  us  the  significant  fact  that 
one  of  the  great  motives  which  led  to  the  Renaissance  was 
a  renewal  in  Italy  of  the  national  spirit,  so  long  stifled 
both  in  politics  and  art.     The  petty  republics  and  small 

1  (1304-13  74.) 


THE   RENAISS.\NCE  265 

principalities  had  almost  blotted  out  the  memory  of  the 
time  when  the  great  Roman  Empire  had  been  mistress  of 
the  world  and  when  Rome  gave  law  to  Spain  and  Gaul 
and  Africa  and  Asia  Minor.  A  recollection  of  this  fact 
now  thrilled  through  the  minds  of  all  Italians  and  inspired 
that  sentiment  for  Italian  unity  which  was  destined  to  re- 
main a  vital  thing  down  through  the  succeeding  centuries 
until  gradually  the  Kingdom  of  Sardinia  gave  it  actuality 
when  in  1870  the  King  of  a  United  Italy  burst  through 
the  walls  of  Rome  and  made  that  ancient  city  the  splen- 
did capital  of  a  new  and  powerful  State. 

As  to  Petrarca's  Latin  epic  on  the  Second  Punic  War, 
its  verse  is  imperfect.  The  Latin  poets  of  the  Renaissance 
period  were  still  obliged  for  a  long  time  to  guess  at  many 
of  the  quantities  in  the  words  which  they  employed,  and 
they  often  guessed  wrong;  yet  there  are  in  this  poem  many 
splendid  passages  of  which  perhaps  the  most  significant 
of  all  is  one  of  nine  lines  in  the  ninth  book,^  which  is  a 
spirited  and  striking  prophecy  of  the  Renaissance  itself. 

One  more  important  fact  remains  to  be  mentioned.  To 
Petrarca's  mind,  it  began  to  be  apparent  that  the  classical 
texts  known  to  his  world  formed  but  a  small  part  of  the 
great  and  splendid  mass  of  literature  that  had  once  existed ; 
and  he  appears  to  have  set  himself  to  the  task  of  its  recov- 
ery. Wherever  he  went  in  his  travels,  he  searched  for 
manuscripts  of  classic  authors,  and  with  some  measure  of 

^  ix.  273-282. 


266  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

success.  At  Liege  he  discovered  two  new  orations  of 
Cicero  and  a  part  of  Cicero's  letters.  At  Verona  he  found 
a  portion  of  the  Institutio  of  Quintilian,  —  then  practically 
unknown.  More  important  in  its  way  than  all  the  rest 
as  a  philological  discovery,  he  recognised  and  acknowl- 
edged the  very  close  relation  of  Latin  to  Greek,  —  a  won- 
derful achievement  for  the  time,  as  strange,  in  fact,  as  the 
much  later  discovery  of  the  relation  of  Sanskrit  to  both 
Greek  and  Latin.  In  his  old  age,  Petrarca,  like  Cato, 
made  an  effort  to  master  the  Greek  language.  Unluckily 
there  was  no  one  in  Florence  at  that  time  who  was  capable 
of  teaching  him,  and  he  died  without  learning  enough  to 
read  a  copy  of  Homer  which  had  been  sent  him  from 
Constantinople.^ 

Petrarca  was  the  first  true  son  of  the  Renaissance,  in 
that  his  love  for  classical  antiquity  was  not  in  the  least 
degree  overlaid  by  mediaevalism,  as  was  that  of  Dante. 
Despising  all  that  had  been  done  in  the  preceding  seven 
hundred  years,  he  struggled  passionately  to  return  to  the 
spirit  and  life  of  the  classical  age.  Before  his  death  he 
had  attained  to  a  Latin  style  of  remarkable  purity,  and  in 
his  Epistolce,  his  De  Viris  Illustribus,  and  his  dialogues  he 
struck  the  note  of  classicism  so  clearly  and  so  splendidly 
as  to  waken  the  dormant  genius  of  Italy  once  more  to 

*  Petrarca  urged  his  friend  and  disciple  Boccaccio  to  render  this  copy 
of  Homer  into  Latin,  and  the  task  was  very  imperfectly  performed  with 
the  aid  of  a  Calabrian  Greek,  one  Leonzio  Pilato. 


THE   RENAISSANCE  267 

life.i  Petrarca's  gifted  secretary,  Giovanni  da  Ravenna  (or 
Giovanni  Malpaghini),  an  accomplished  Latinist,  was  the 
most  noted  missionary  of  the  new  movement.  TraveUing 
from  city  to  city  all  over  Italy,  he  gathered  about  him 
a  host  of  pupils  to  whom  he  taught  the  Latin,  not  of 
the  monks  and  schoolmen,  but  of  Cicero  and  Caesar, 
communicating  to  them  the  new  impulse,  and  stirring  them 
with  a  new  enthusiasm  that  had  been  felt  both  by  him- 
self and  by  his  inspired  master. 

Giovanni  Boccaccio,^  who  is  best  known  to  moderns  by 
his  Decameron,  was  an  enthusiastic  son  of  the  Renais- 
sance. His  mother  was  French,  but  he  was  soon  taken  to 
Italy,  where  he  flung  himself  into  the  gay  life  and  natural 
beauty  of  the  city  of  Naples,  which  was  then,  under  King 
Robert,  a  centre  of  culture  and  learning.  At  the  same 
time  he  became  interested  in  classical  study  and  had  spent 
much  time  in  copying  manuscripts  of  Terence  and  Apu- 
leius.  It  is  likely  that  the  latter  author,  whose  book  is 
professedly  a  collection  of  Milesian  tales,  gave  Boccaccio 
the  first  suggestion  for  his  Decameron,  which  is,  in  arrange- 
ment and  manner,  a  collection  of  Milesians,  that  is  to  say, 
of  short,  witty  stories  as  we  know  them  now.     But  from 

^  There  is  a  critical  edition  of  the  Africa  by  Corradini  with  an  Italian 
translation  (Oneglia,  1874).  On  Petrarca  himself,  see  Mezieres,  Pclrarque 
(Paris,  1867);  Geiger,  Petrarca  (Leipzig,  1874);  Robinson  and  Rolfe, 
Petrarch  (New  York,  1898),  and  de  Nolhac,  Petrarque  et  VHumanisme, 
2d  ed.  (Paris,  1907). 

^  1313-1375- 


268  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  standpoint  of  a  classicist,  Boccaccio  is  most  impor- 
tant because  of  the  fact  that  he  attained  to  an  excellent 
Latin  style  and  wrote  a  number  of  treatises  in  Latin  on 
various  subjects,  quite  after  the  manner  (let  us  say)  of 
Varro  or  Suetonius.^  His  disciples  and  those  of  Giovanni 
Malpaghini  in  their  turn  preached  the  gospel  of  classi- 
cal culture  at  Venice,  Mantua,  Rome,  and  other  Ital- 
ian cities.  Leonardo  Bruni^  made  excellent  translations 
of  Aristotle,  Demosthenes,  and  Plutarch;  while  Barbaro, 
Strozzi,  and  others  shared  in  the  enthusiastic  labours.  One 
of  them,  Colutius  Salutati  (Coluccio  di  Salutato),  chancellor 
to  the  city  of  Florence  in  1375,  first  used  in  the  public  docu- 
ments of  his  office  the  sonorous  Latin  of  Cicero,  and  thus 
forced  upon  popes  and  princes  the  necessity  of  securing  for 
themselves  scribes  and  secretaries  who  were  masters  of 
the  classic  style.  The  interest  which  pertained  to  every- 
thing which  had  to  do  with  classical  antiquity  led  Ciriaco 
de'  Pizzicolli  (Cyriacus  of  Ancona)  to  feel  a  strong  enthu- 
siasm for  archaeological  rather  than  literary  remains.  He 
ransacked  every  part  of  Italy  and  the  Greek  islands, 
collecting,  besides  manuscripts,  bits  of  sculpture,  gems, 
medals,  and  coins,  and  taking  note  of  such  inscriptions  as 
seemed  to  him  significant.  When  asked  what  was  his 
object  in  these  endless  joumeyings,  he  replied,  "I  go  to 

*  See  Korting,  Boccaccio's  Leben  und  Werke,  pp.  742  foil.  (Leipzig, 
1880) ;  Symonds,  op.  cit.  pp.  87-97,  ^33  ;  Cochin,  Boccaccio,  etc.  (Paris, 
1890).  2 1369-1444. 


THE   RENAISSANCE  269 

awake  the  dead  ";  and  this  reply  has  been  regarded  as  the 
key-note  of  the  early  Renaissance.^ 

The  recognition  of  the  value  of  Greek  which  had  come 
to  Petrarca  in  his  later  years  now  became  a  part  of  every 
scholar's  training.  Giacomo  da  Sciaparia  visited  Con- 
stantinople in  1375,  the  year  of  Petrarca's  death,  for  the 
purpose  of  learning  Greek  from  those  who  spoke  it. 
Salutato  and  Strozzi  founded  a  chair  of  Greek  at  the 
University  of  Florence.  In  1396  Manuel  Chrysoloras, 
a  learned  Byzantine,  came  from  the  East  to  Italy;  and 
while  teaching  Greek  at  Florence,  established  schools  for 
the  study  of  that  language  at  Padua,  Milan,  Venice,  and 
Rome.  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  then  head  of  the  Florentine 
Republic,  founded  a  special  academy  for  the  study  of  Plato. 
The  rich  citizens  of  Florence  vied  with  one  another  in 
their  munificence  and  enthusiasm  for  the  furthering:  of 
classical  learning.  Niccolo  de'  Niccoli,  Pietro  di  Pazzi, 
Manetti,  and  Palla  Strozzi  are  but  a  few  of  many  famous 
names.  The  first  gave  his  entire  fortune  to  the  collection 
and  reproduction  of  ancient  manuscripts.  Di  Pazzi  kept  a 
teacher  of  Greek  and  Latin  always  in  his  house,  and  com- 
mitted to  memory  the  whole  of  the  Mneid  and  long 
chapters  of  Livy.  Manetti  devoted  his  life  to  the  further- 
ance of  what  has  been  called  Humanism  in  opposition  to 

^Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum,  ii.  pp.  xxii.  129  foil.;  Hubner, 
Romische  Epigraphik  in  Miiller's  Handbuch,  i;  Symonds,  op.  cit.  pp. 
155  foil,  and  Injra,  p.  270. 


270  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Mediae valism.i  He  strove  also  to  harmortise  the  teach- 
ings of  Christianity  with  those  of  paganism.  Strozzi 
employed  all  the  facilities  which  his  great  commercial  in- 
terests in  other  countries  gave  him  for  the  discovery  and 
purchase  of  manuscripts. 

It  is  perfectly  clear  from  all  this,  that  it  was  not  the  down- 
fall of  Constantinople  and  the  dispersion  of  Greek  scholars 
that  brought  about  the  Renaissance,  since  the  thirst  for 
learning,  the  reversion  to  the  classical  spirit,  antedated 
the  end  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  by  nearly  eighty  years: 

"Circumstances  favoured  a  rapid  spread  of  the  new  culture. 
The  Italian  cities,  grown  rich  under  democracy,  but  having  tired 
somewhat  of  its  responsibilities,  had  been  passing  into  the  control 
of  that  extraordinary  series  of  despotic  rulers  who  united  with  a 
brutal  unscrupulousness  of  character  a  taste  for  the  best  in  litera- 
ture and  art  without  a  parallel.  It  was  one  of  the  chief  aims  to 
power  for  a  new-made  tyrant  like  Cosimo  de'  Medici  that  he  pro- 
vided the  means  of  existence  for  talent  of  every  sort.  Even  the 
bloody  ruffians  who,  one  after  another,  held  power  in  Milan,  made 
places  for  scholars  and  artists,  maintained  libraries,  and  encouraged 
learned  research.  The  ancient  universities  of  Bologna,  Padua, 
and  Salerno  were  reinvigorated  by  the  healthful  breath  of  the  new 
learning  and  stimulated  by  the  rivalry  of  the  new  schools  founded 
by  the  younger  republics.  The  Papacy,  with  a  free  hand  after  the 
Council  of  Basel  (1431-1449),  passed  into  the  control  of  a  series  of 
men  like  Nicholas  V.,  Pius  II.,  and  Leo  X.,  in  whom  the  interest  in 
learning  and  art  was  an  absorbing  passion.  In  fact,  learning,  under 
the  Italian  humanistic  impulse,  may  be  said  to  have  taken  on  the 
form  of  a  fine  art  and  thus  to  have  concealed  much  of  its  serious 
import.     Under  all  these  favouring  conditions  it  is  not  strange  that 

^  Infra,  p.  271. 


THE   RENAISSANCE  271 

a  certain  flippancy  of  character  came  to  be  associated  with  the  clev- 
erness of  the  fifteenth-century  scholars.  The  lightness  of  Boc- 
caccio had  seemed  the  natural  expression  of  exuberant  joy  in  the 
natural  things  of  human  life.  A  century  later,  this  sincerity  had 
largely  given  way  to  an  over-refinement  that  knew  no  limits. 
Everything  was  permissible  in  the  name  of  aesthetic  experiment. 
Without  in  any  formal  way  renouncing  their  allegiance  to  Chris- 
tianity, many  became  more  really  interested  in  philosophy  than  in 
doctrine,  and  increasingly  lax  in  following  the  ordinary  forms  of 
devotion." ' 

Here,  then,  is  to  be  seen  what  is  meant  by  Humanism 
as  opposed  to  MedicCvaHsm.  Humanism  of  course  sug- 
gests humanitas,  which  to  the  Roman  mind  meant  fine 
breeding  combined  with  geniality,  careful  cultivation,  and 
a  certain  urhanitas  —  in  other  words,  the  characteristics 
which  to-day  mark  the  one  whom  we  would  describe  as  a 
gentleman  and  a  scholar.  The  key-note  of  Humanism 
is  a  toleration  of  individual  tastes  and  an  objection  to  every 
form  of  dogmatism.  The  mediasvals  were  dogmatic  to  a 
degree.  The  men  of  the  Renaissance  imposed  no  check 
upon  the  aesthetic  tastes  of  others,  though  they  were  all 
bound  together  by  a  common  love  of  what  was  fine  and 
gracious  and  beautiful. ^ 

Returning  to  the  relations  between  Byzantium  and 
Italy,  we  can  readily  see  in  the  first  place  that  the  Renais- 

^  See  infra,  p.  272. 

2  Voigt,  Die  Wiederbelcbung  des  klassischen  Alterthums  odcr  das  erste 
Jahrhundert  des  Humanismits,  3d  ed.  (Berlin,  1893) ;  Burckhardt,  The 
Culture  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  Eng.  trans.  (London,  1898);  and 
Gasquet,  The  Eve  of  the  Reformation  (London,  1905) ;  Emerton,  op.  oil. 


272  HISTORY_OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

sance  antedated  the  sack  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks 
(1453).  It  is,  indeed,  of  the  utmost  importance  to  clas- 
sical literature  that  the  general  interest  in  the  Recovery 
of  Greek  manuscripts  began  while  Constantinople  was  still 
an  independent  Grecian  city.  Had  the  Renaissance  been 
postponed,  many  of  the  literary  treasures  brought  to  Italy 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  supply  the 
demand  of  Italian  scholars  must  have  remained  in  Greece 
to  be  destroyed  in  the  pillage  of  Byzantium,  where  it  is 
traditionally  said  that  at  least  120,000  books  were  taken 
and  burned  by  the  fanatical  Turks.  As  it  was,  from  the 
year  1400  to  1450,  there  was  an  increasingly  brisk  im- 
portation of  Greek  texts  into  Italy,  and  an  even  greater 
demand  for  translations  of  them.  Thus,  Nicholas  V., 
who,  as  a  monk,  had  run  deeply  into  debt  for  manuscripts, 
became,  when  Pope,  a  munificent  collector  and  patron. 
It  was  his  purpose  to  have  all  the  Greek  classics 
rendered  into  idiomatic  and  lucid  Latin.  He  main- 
tained hundreds  of  copyists  in  his  service,  and  agents 
in  foreign  countries  were  employed  by  him  wholly  for 
procuring  codices.  It  was  he  who  gave  to  Perotti  five 
hundred  ducats  ($1200)  for  translating  Polybius  into 
Italian,  and  to  Guarino  a  thousand  gold  florins  for  a  like 
version  of  Polybius  into  Latin.  He  also  promised  Filelfo 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  gold  florins  for  a  metrical  render- 
ing of  Homer.  Even  when  the  plague  drove  him  and  his 
court  from  Rome,  he  took  with  him  all  his  copyists  and 


THE   RENAISSANCE  273 

translators  lest  he  should  lose  any  of  them.  His  collec- 
tion of  books  numbered  at  his  death  two  thousand  volumes 
and  became  the  nucleus  of  the  Vatican  Library.  Car- 
dinal Bessarion,  the  translator  of  Aristotle  and  a  part  of 
Xenophon,  collected,  at  a  cost  of  thirty  thousand  gold 
florins,  manuscripts  to  the  number  of  six  hundred.  For 
the  safe  keeping  of  these,  the  Venetian  Republic,  in  1468, 
erected  a  massive  building,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  great  Library  of  St.  Mark.  The  noblest  Italian  collec- 
tion which  existed  at  this  time  was  that  of  Frederick  of 
Urbino  (1444-1482).^  Even  as  a  boy  he  had  begun  to 
purchase  books,  and  as  soon  as  he  reached  manhood  he 
kept  some  forty  copyists  continually  at  work.  His  library 
was  one  of  the  most  complete  of  the  age,  including  a  wide 
range  of  literature  which  represented  not  only  theology,  but 
philosophy,  medicine,  and  a  list  of  Greek  authors,  com- 
prising all  of  Sophocles,  all  of  Pindar,  and  all  of  Me- 
nander.^  In  his  possession  were  catalogues  of  all  the  great 
libraries  of  Italy  and  of  foreign  libraries,  including  even 

1  Also  called  Federico  di  Montefeltro. 

2  The  complete  Menander  was  probably  lost  at  the  sack  of  Urbino  by 
Cesare  Borgia.  Scholars  hope  for  the  ultimate  recovery  of  books  that 
have  been  regarded  as  wholly  lost.  The  Egyptian  papyri  may  prove  a 
valuable  source.  Thus  very  recently  they  have  yielded  parts  of  Bac- 
chylides  and  Menander.  The  mediaevals  possessed  MSS.  of  authors 
now  lost.  We  may  now  look  for  the  missing  books  of  Livy,  for  the  MSS. 
of  Petronius,  for  all  of  Menander,  and  perhaps  for  the  lyric  poets  like 
Sappho,  Alcaeus,  and  others  of  whose  writings  only  the  veriest  fragments 
are  now  known  to  exist.     See  Burckhardt,  op.  cit.  i.  p.  268. 


274  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

those  so  far  away  as  Oxford.  It  is  worth  noting  that  his 
collection  contained  not  only  ancient  works,  but  what  was 
then  "  modern,"  that  is  to  say,  contemporary  literature 
—  Dante,  Petrarca,  and  Boccaccio.  Here  was  the  true 
type  of  humanist,  and  one  that  modem  classical  scholars 
would  do  well  to  emulate.  Too  often  they  narrow  their 
knowledge  to  a  small  comer  of  a  specialty  which  profits 
only  two  or  three,  and  they  ignore  the  great  golden  world 
outside,  pulsating  with  life  and  filled  wjth  millions  of 
things  of  which  no  one  should  be  altogether  ignorant. 
The  present  writer  has  himself  come  in  contact  with  pur- 
blind ignoramuses  who  were  supposed  to  be  classicists 
but  who  really  knew  nothing  of  the  classics,  because  they 
were  ignorant  of  the  thousand  and  one  things  which  shed 
an  interpretative  light  upon  classical  learning  through  the 
varied,  multicoloured  sources  of  general  literature  and 
history  and  politics  and  art.  These  are  the  creatures 
who  have  too  often  dragged  the  classics  down  to  the  level 
of  their  own  ignorance.  One  may  wish  to-day  for  a  new 
Renaissance  which  shall  be  actuated  with  the  same  wide 
sympathy  and  the  same  comprehensive  learning  that 
marked  the  great  Revival  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

But,  after  all,  the  greatest  services  in  the  recovery  of 
classical  texts  were  rendered,  not  by  popes  and  princes,  but 
by  less  distinguished  persons  who,  having  little  money  to 
spare,  gave  the  more  freely  of  their  time  and  labour.  These 
went  forth  like  seekers  after  hidden  treasure  in  a  search 


THE    RENAISSANCE  275 

that  had  for  them,  in  their  enthusiasm,  all  the  romantic 
zest  of  a  new  Crusade.  It  must  be  remembered  that  while 
Italy  was  ablaze  with  the  ardour  of  the  new  revival,  the 
rest  of  Europe  was  still  plunged  m  the  dulness  of  Mediae- 
valism.  Only  here  and  there  had  some  single  scholar  yet 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance.  The  monasteries 
were  still  as  somnolent  as  ever.  The  schoolmen  were  still 
threshing  out  their  mouldy  theological  chaff.  The  copy- 
ists of  the  North  were  still  erasing  Vergil  and  Catullus 
and  Lucretius  to  make  room  for  Rabanus  Maurus  and 
Duns  Scotus. 

Into  these  sleepy  haunts  came  the  scholars  of  Italy,  eager 
to  search  among  the  parchments  that  lay  in  dusty  bundles 
in  the  scriptoria,  the  cellars,  and  sometimes  even  the  out- 
houses, for  any  scroll  or  scrap  that  contained  the  Latin  of 
pagan  Rome.  The  story  of  these  explorations,  of  the 
difficulties  encountered,  of  the  rebuffs  experienced,  of  the 
disappointments  undergone,  and  of  the  splendid  discoveries 
achieved,  would  read  like  a  romance;  but  it  cannot  be 
related  here.  One  name  in  the  history  of  this  period  is, 
however,  so  closely  linked  with  the  recovery  of  priceless 
manuscripts,  as  to  justify  at  least  a  passing  mention,  be- 
cause of  the  services  which  he  rendered  in  the  revival  of 
learning  and  more  especially  in  what  we  may  call  the  exca- 
vation of  texts  hitherto  unknown.  Many  scholars  have 
shown  their  gratitude  to  him  by  calling  the  first  half  of 
the  fifteenth  century  "  The  Age  of  Poggio  Bracciolini." 


276  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Gian  Francesco  Poggio  Bracciolini  ^  was  a  Florentine, 
who,  as  a  young  man,  gained  his  living  by  copying  manu- 
scripts.    From  his  fees  he  was  able  to  pay  for  instruction 
under  two  of  the  greatest  teachers  of  his  time  —  Giovanni 
da  Ravenna  in  Latin  and  Manuel  Chrysoloras  in  Greek. 
Later  he  became  secretary  to  the  Roman  Curia,  and  in 
this  capacity  he  accompanied  the  great  dignitaries  of  the 
Church  on  their  official  visits  to  Switzerland,  Germany, 
and  even  England,  so  that  the  notes  of  these  journeys 
which  he  made  are  very  interesting  from  their  quaintness 
and  naivete.     In  1453,  he  was  made  Chancellor  to  the 
Republic    of   Florence,    Prior,    and    Historiographer,    in 
which  capacity  he  wrote  the  annals  of  the  city  in  Latin 
modelled  upon  that  of  Livy.     Poggio  was  a  man  of  great 
versatility,   wide  sympathy,   and   an   intense  enthusiasm 
for  classical  literature.     His  literary  activity  was  remark- 
able, even  in  that  era,  for  he  won  distinction  as  an  orator,^ 
as  an  historian,^  as  a  keen  though  scurrilous  controver- 
sialist,^ as  a  satirist,^  as  a  writer  of  very  readable  epistles,' 
as  an  essayist,^  as  a  translator  from  the  Greek,*  and  as  a 
compiler  of  witty   though   indecent  anecdotes   and   epi- 
grams. °     It  is  not,  however,  for  these  things,  nor  for  his 
fluent  and  easy  Latin,  that  he  is  now  remembered.     His 

*  1380-1459.  2  Orator  Publicus  of  Florence. 
^  History  of  Florence.  *  Against  Filelfo  {q.v.). 

*  He  attacked  chiefly  the  clergy.      ^  Especially  regarding  his  travels. 

^  Imitating  Seneca.  ^  He  translated  Xenophon's  Cyropcedia. 

*  Collectively  styled  Facetice. 


THE    RENAISSANCE  277 

fame  to-day  rests  upon  his  remarkable  discoveries  of 
manuscripts  in  the  convent  hbraries  of  Germany  and 
Switzerland  chiefly,  at  Weingarten,  Reichenau,  and  St. 
Gallen,  Without  recalhng  minor  details,  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  he  brought  to  light  the  whole  of  Quintilian, 
twelve  plays  of  Plautus,  Asconius  Pedianus,  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  Nonius  Marcellus,  Probus,  and  Flavius 
Caper,  together  with  a  part  of  Valerius  Flaccus.  Among 
his  other  trouvailles  were  valuable  manuscripts  of  Lu- 
cretius,^ Columella,  Silius  Italicus,  Vitruvius,  Livy,  Ma- 
nilius,  Priscian,  Frontinus,  the  Silvce  of  Statius,  the  oration 
of  Cicero  Pro  CcBcina,  and  the  Aratea.  If  Poggio's  means 
permitted  him  to  buy  a  manuscript,  he  bought  it.  If  he 
could  not  buy  it,  he  copied  it.  If  he  could  neither  buy 
it  nor  copy  it,  he  stole  it,  as  in  the  case  of  a  valuable 
manuscript  of  Livy  and  one  of  Ammianus  at  Hersfeld.^ 

No  pains  were  spared  by  him,  and  no  fatigues  or  diffi- 
culties could  discourage  him.  As  his  friend  Francesco 
Barbaro  wrote:  "No  severity  of  winter  cold,  no  snow, 
no  length  of  journeying,  no  rouglmess  of  roads,  pre- 
vented him  from  bringing  to  light  the  monuments  of 
literature."  He  used  his  influence  with  the  prelates  of 
the  Church  to  aid  him.     A  certain  Dane  had    informed 

'  This  manuscript  is  one  of  the  three  copies  made  from  a  single  arche- 
type which  has  long  been  lost.  From  Poggio's  copy  were  made  all  the 
Italian  manuscripts  of  Lucretius. 

2  At  least  there  is  no  record  of  his  having  returned  them,  as  it  was 
his  usual  practice  to  note. 


278  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  Pope  that  in  a  Cistercian  convent  at  Roskilde  there 
was  a  manuscript  of  Livy  containing  all  of  the  lost  books. 
Poggio  at  once  persuaded  Cardinal  Orsini  to  send  a 
special  messenger  in  search  of  it,  while  Cosimo  de'  Medici 
bestirred  himself  and  despatched  agents  to  secure  this 
treasure.  The  Dane,  however,  had  probably  lie^,  for 
the  manuscript  could  not  be  found.  Poggio's  own  ac- 
count of  how  he  discovered  Quintilian  ^  is  interesting 
because  it  shows  that  even  in  the  most  famous  libraries 
of  the  North,  the  books  which  they  contained  were  very 
little  valued  for  their  own  sake.     Poggio  writes:  — 

"  The  monastery  of  St.  Gallen  lies  some  twenty  miles  from 
the  city.  Thither,  partly  for  amusement  and  partly  for  the  sake 
of  finding  books,  of  which  we  had  heard  that  there  was  a  large 
collection  in  the  convent,  we  directed  our  steps.  In  the  middle 
of  the  well-stocked  library,  we  discovered  Quintilian  safe  as  yet 
and  sound,  though  covered  with  dust  and  filthy  from  neglect  and 
age.  You  must  know  that  the  books  are  not  housed  as  they  de- 
serve, but  were  lying  in  a  most  foul  and  dismal  dungeon  at  the 
very  bottom  of  a  tower,  —  a  place  into  which  condemned  crimi- 
nals would  hardly  have  been  thrust.  .  .  .  Quintilian  was  indeed 
right  side  to  look  upon,  and  ragged  like  a  felon  with  rough  beard 
and  matted  hair,  protesting  by  his  countenance  and  garb  against 
the  injustice  of  his  sentence.  He  seemed  to  be  stretching  out  his 
hand  and  calling  on  the  Romans,  begging  to  be  saved  from  so 
undeserved  a  fate."'^ 

1  This  complete  manuscript  of  Quintilian,  Poggio  copied  with  his  own 
hand  in  thirty-two  days  and  sent  it  to  Leonardo  Bruni,  who  wrote  back 
to  him:  "As  Camillas  was  called  the  second  founder  of  Rome,  so  may 
you  receive  the  title  of  the  second  author  of  the  works  which  you  have 
restored  to  the  world." 

''There  is  a  life  of  Poggio  in  English  by  Shepherd  (Liverpool,  1837). 


THE    RENAISSANCE  279 

Side  by  side  with  this  narrative,  we  may  set  the  similar 
account  of  Boccaccio's  visit  to  Monte  Cassino :  *  — 

"  Desirous  of  saving  the  collection  of  books  ...  he  modestly 
asked  the  monk  to  open  the  Hbrary  for  him  as  a  favour.  The 
monk  stiffly  answered,  as  he  pointed  to  a  steep  staircase :  '  Go  up ; 
it  is  open.'  Boccaccio  gladly  went  up;  but  he  found  that  the 
place  which  held  so  great  a  treasure  was  without  a  door  or  key. 
He  entered,  and  saw  grass  sprouting  on  the  windows,  and  all  the 
books  and  benches  thick  with  dust.  Astonished,  he  began  to 
open  and  turn  the  leaves  of  first  one  tome  and  then  another,  and 
found  many  and  various  volumes  of  ancient  and  foreign  works. 
Some  of  them  had  lost  several  sheets.  Others  were  snipped  and 
pared  all  around  the  text  and  mutilated  in  different  ways.  .  .  . 
Coming  to  the  cloister,  he  asked  the  monk  whom  he  met,  why 
these  valuable  books  had  been  so  disgracefully  mutilated.  The 
answer  was  given  him  that  the  monks,  in  order  to  gain  a  httle 
money,  were  in  the  habit  of  cutting  off  sheets  and  making  psalters 
which  they  sold  to  boys.  The  margins  they  made  into  charms 
and  disposed  of  them  to  women." 

Other  famous  discoveries  that  were  made  about  this 
time  were  those  of  fairly  complete  manuscripts  of  Cicero's 
letters  by  Leonardo  Bruni  (1409),  of  Cicero's  rhetorical 
works  by  Gherardo  Lanbriano,  at  Lodi  (1425),  and  of  a 
fairly  complete  manuscript  of  Plautus  by  Nicholas  of 
Treves  (1429).  Of  the  Greek  classics  the  most  famous 
collector  was  Giovanni  Aurispa.  In  1423,  he  arrived  at 
Venice  with  238  volumes  which  he  had  purchased  in 
Constantinople.     Among  these  were  the  celebrated  Codex 

'  Quoted  from  Benvenuto  da  Imola,  by  Symonds,  op.  cil.,  pp.  133-134. 


28o  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Laurentianus  ^  written  in  the  tenth  century  and  now  pre- 
served in  the  Laurentian  Museum  at  Florence.  It  con- 
tained six  plays  of  ^schylus,  seven  of  Sophocles,  and 
the  Argonautica  of  Apollonius  Rhodius.  T^here  were 
also  the  Iliad  (Venet.  A),  the  complete  text  bf  Demos- 
thenes, besides  Plato,  Xenophon,  Diodorus,  Strabo, 
Arrian,  Athenasus,  Lucian,  Dio  Cassius,  and  Procopius. 
So  great  a  mass  of  treasure  in  the  field  of  manuscript- 
collecting  was  never  found  by  any  other  individual. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  some  of  the  later  Byzantines 
began  to  be  known  in  the  countries  of  the  West.  The 
name  of  Manuel  Chrysoloras  has  already  been  men- 
tioned. He  taught  Greek  in  Florence,  Venice,  and  Rome, 
and  pursued  his  journeying  to  the  North,  where  he 
died,  in  Germany  (1415).  He  made  a  literal  translation 
of  Plato's  Republic;  and  his  contemporary,  Plethon,  did 
much  to  spread  the  Platonic  philosophy.  Theodorus 
Gaza,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  wrote  an 
elementary  Greek  grammar,  and  made  translations  of 
Aristotle,    Theophrastus,  ^Elian,  and    Dionysius,  besides 

'  Codex,  originally  meaning  a  log  of  wood,  later  meant  wooden  tablets 
covered  with  wax  for  writing  on,  and  in  after  times,  when  parchment  or 
paper  or  other  materials  were  substituted  for  wood  and  put  together  in 
the  shape  of  a  book,  the  name  codex  was  applied  to  it.  In  the  language 
of  classical  scholarship,  codex  is  used  of  any  manuscript  edition  preserved 
in  the  libraries  of  Europe.  Codices  are  sometimes  named  after  persons 
who  possessed  them,  e.g.  the  Codex  Vossianus,  named  after  the  Dutch 
scholar  Voss  ;  but  oftener  after  the  places  where  they  had  been  kept,  e.g. 
Codex  Britannicus  from  the  British  Museum. 


THE   RENAISSANCE  281 

turning  the  De  Senectuie  and  the  De  Amicitia  of  Cicero 
into  Greek.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  the  Italian 
humanists  stood  high  above  the  Greeks  who  came  to 
teach  them.  The  latter  were  slow  and  unimaginative 
and  plodding  —  essentially  Byzantine.  They  were  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  such  brilliant  Italians  as 
Francesco  Filelfo,  itinerant,  lecturer  and  teacher,  witty 
controversialist,  collector  of  manuscripts,  and  transla- 
tor of  Homer;  or  his  brilliant  contemporary,  Laurentius 
Valla  (Lorenzo  dclla  Valla);  or  Marsilius  Ficinus  (Mar- 
siglio  Ficino)  ;  or  the  immensely  erudite  Angelus  Poli- 
tianus ;  and  especially  Petrus  Victorius  (Pietro  Vettori) } 
The  men  just  mentioned  have  been  made  the  subject 
of  many  volumes,  and  in  their  lives,  their  achievements, 
and  their  controversies,  one  finds  displayed  the  virtues 
and  the  vices,  the  enthusiasms,  and  the  illuminating 
ardour  of  the  Renaissance.  Filelfo,  roving  from  place 
to  place,  seems  like  one  of  the  greater  Sophists  of  the 
time  of  Socrates.^  Valla,  though  scurrilous  like  Poggio, 
prepared  in  1444  a  volume  which  he  called  EleganticB 
Latini  Sernionis.  It  was  essentially  a  treatise  on  style, 
on  purity  of  diction,  practically  on  Ciceronianism.  Dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages  and  later,  it  was  difficult  to  write 
Latin  with  any  assurance,  since  there  were  no  full  lexi- 
cons whose  makers  had  sifted  out  the  classical  words 
from    the   barbarisms    of    the    preceding    centuries,    nor 

^  1499-1584.  ^  Supra,  pp.  49-51- 


282  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

were  there  any  grammars  which  taught  authoritatively 
what  was  right  and  what  was  wrong  in  the  syntax  of  the 
Latin  language.  Valla  did  not  attempt  to  indicate  bar- 
barisms; but  he  took  a  safe  stand  on  the  basis  of  Cicero's 
Latinity.  He  could  say  that  such  and  such  a  sentence 
or  such  and  such  a  phrase  or  word  was  right  because  it 
was  Ciceronian.  Other  sentences  and  phrases  and  words 
might  be  quite  correct,  but  one  could  not  be  sure.  That 
is  to  say,  Valla's  book  was  a  guide  to  Ciceronians,  and 
was  executed  with  so  much  care  and  taste  that  it  imposed 
upon  Italians  the  Latin  that  was  Cicero's,  and  in  less 
than  a  hundred  years  it  had  reached  its  fifty-ninth  edition. 
Even  to-day  it  may  be  consulted  with  profit.  Valla, 
likewise,  translated  Homer,  Herodotus,  and  Thucydides; 
while  he  made  an  edition  of  Quintilian  with  careful 
attention  to  the  text  and  doctrine.  ^ 

Politianus,  who  took  his  name  from  Monte  Puliciano, 
had  a  wonderful  reputation  in  his  time.  He  began  his 
studies  in  both  Latin  and  Greek  at  Florence  under  the 
best  teachers,  and  when  scarcely  fifteen  years  of  age,  he 
wrote  a  poem  of  1400  lines  celebrating  the  victory  of 
one  of  the  Medici  at  a  tournament.  At  seventeen  he 
wrote  exquisite  Greek  poems.  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  made 
him   tutor  to   his    two    sons,   and    afterward    gave    him 

'  See  Vahlen,  Lorenzo  Valla  (Vienna,  1870)  ;  Nisard,  Les  Gladiateurs 
de  la  Republique  des  Lettres,  etc.  (Paris,  1889)  ;  Wolff,  Lorenzo  Valla 
(Leipzig,  1893) ;  Schwahn  (Leipzig,  1896) ;  and  Symonds,  op.  cit.  pp. 
258-265. 


THE   RENAISSANCE  283 

a  charming  villa  where  he  could  study  under  the  most 
favourable  conditions.  Being  sent  as  an  ambassador 
from  Florence  to  Rome,  he  was  received  in  the  most 
flattering  manner  by  the  Pope.  At  the  request  of  His 
Holiness,  he  translated  Herodianus  and  received  200  gold 
crowns  as  a  reward.  As  a  translator,  he  was  inimitable, 
but  he  preferred  professorial  work,  filling  a  chair  of 
Latin  literature  in  Florence,  and  also  teaching  Greek. 
His  fame  spread  all  over  Europe,  and  pupils  flocked 
from  the  great  cities  to  study  under  him,  among  them 
being  the  first  two  English  teachers  of  Greek  —  Grocyn 
and  Linacre  —  and  Michelangelo.  One  may  rightly  say 
that  Politianus  was  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  scholar  of 
the  first  period  of  the  Renaissance,  since  he  was  not  only 
vigorous  but  original.  While  able  to  reproduce  the 
noble  periods  of  Cicero,  he  could  write  with  equal  ease 
pages  which  recalled  the  elegance  of  Livy  and  the  strength 
of  Tacitus.  His  Latin  verse  is  especially  to  be  noted  for 
its  beauty  of  expression  and  for  the  glow  of  its  author's 
imagination.^ 

As  for  Victorius,  he  stands  as  the  greatest  philologist 
and  critic  of  his  century.  His  life  was  one  of  wide  experi- 
ence, for  he  was  at  various  times  a  soldier,  a  diplomat, 
and  a  teacher  of  Greek  and  Latin.  He  made  text  editions 
and  commentaries  on  Cicero,  which  surpassed  in  acute- 
ness  the  work  of  his  contemporaries.     Like  Politianus, 

^  See  Gresswell,  Life  of  Politian  (London,  1805). 


284  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

he  translated  some  of  the  works  of  Aristotle.  Editions 
with  notes  were  put  forth  on  parts  of  ^schylus,  Sophocles, 
Xenophon,  Terence,  Sallust,  Varro,  Isaeus,  and  some  less 
known  Grecians.  But  his  most  remarkable  production 
is  his  VaricB  Lectiones,  in  thirty-eight  books  (1582).  It 
shows  beyond  all  question  the  acuteness  of  his  criticism 
and  the  vast  extent  of  his  reading.^  He  had  the  honour 
of  being  painted  by  Titian,  and  of  being  sought  out  by 
students  from  all  countries  in  Europe. 

Victorius  was  especially  interesting  in  his  criticism 
and  exposition  of  Aristotle's  Poetics.  He  interpreted  the 
famous  Kd6apai<i  in  1560,  very  much  as  Roborteli  had 
done  twelve  years  before,  and  as  Castelvetro  did  ten 
years  later.  In  his  criticism,  he  attacks  the  notion  of 
poetic  prose,  because  Aristotle  in  defining  the  poetic 
forms  makes  verse  always  an  essential.  Professor  Spin- 
gam  notes  that  the  phrase  " poetic  prose"  is  used,  perhaps 
for  the  first  time,  by  Minturno  (1564)  in  his  Arte  Poetica. 

The  two  great  names  of  Politianus  and  Victorius  shine 
forth  to  give  splendour  to  the  closing  years  of  the  first 
period  of  the  Renaissance,  which  is  perhaps  best  called 
the  Italian  Period.  It  had  witnessed  the  dawn  of  the 
New  Learning.  It  had  watched  the  enthusiastic  revival 
of  pagan  culture,  and  it  had  restored  to  Western  Europe 
immense  treasures  of  ancient  lore.^     By  the   end  of  the 

1  See  Creuzer,  Opiisc.  ii.  pp.  21-36  (Frankfurt,  1854) ;  Rudinger, 
Petrus  Victorius  (Halle,  1896). 

2  The  immense  demand  for  manuscripts  of  lost  authors  rather  natu- 


THE   RENAISSANCE  285 

fifteenth  century,  and  even  by  the  middle  of  that  cen- 
tury, this  remarkable  movement  had  swept  onward  to 
the  North  and  was  nearing  its  height  in  countries  re- 
mote from  Italy,  but  owing  to  Italy  their  inspiration. 
The  first  breath  of  the  Renaissance  was  soon  felt  in 
France,  with  which  Italy  had  such  close  relations,  then 
in  Germany,  in  Belgium  and  Holland,  in  England,  and  in 
Spain  and  Portugal.  Perhaps  the  close  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance  may  be  regarded  as  almost  coincidental 
w^ith  the  Introduction  of  printing.  The  typographical 
art  was  very  gradually  developed  in  Italy  and  Spain. 
At  first,  initial  letters  in  manuscripts  were  stamped  in  ink 
from  engraved  blocks  of  wood.  Then  these  engraved 
blocks  were  used  for  making  playing  cards,  for  orna- 
menting woven  fabrics,  religious  pictures  with  or  without 
lettering,  engraved  words  without  pictures,  and  finally 
the  wooden  blocks  developed  into  types  of  single  letters 
founded  in  a  mould. 

Who  first  employed  these  movable  types,  no  one  can 
surely  say.     It   makes  no  difference,   however,   whether 

rally  led  to  an  extraordinary  number  of  literary  frauds.  A  great  many 
skilful  scribes  who  were  also  men  of  ability  made  large  sums  by  writing 
on  parchments  spurious  works  which  they  ascribed  to  the  Greeks  or 
Romans  of  renown.  This  was  not  a  new  thing,  since  as  far  back  as  the 
Alexandrian  School  many  fictitious  odes  of  Sappho  were  in  circula- 
tion, and  likewise  didactic  sayings  wrongly  ascribed  to  Theognis,  and 
erotic  songs  to  Anacreon.  See  Gudeman,  "Literary  Frauds  among 
the  Greeks  "  in  Classical  Studies  in  Honour  of  Henry  Drisler  (New  York, 
1894). 


286  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

we  name  Gutenberg  or  Coster  or  the  unknown  workman 
who  is  said  to  have  stolen  the  invention  from  Coster  at 
Mainz  in  Germany  and  then  to  have  made  small  mov- 
able printing  presses.  There  are  also  the  names  of  t'ust 
and  Schoffer.  Certain  it  is  that  printing  was  known 
about  1430,  and  that  regular  presses  were  set  up  about 
1448.  We  may,  therefore,  say  that  the  year  1450  marks 
the  End  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  The  introduction  of 
printing  was  of  immense  importance  to  men  of  learning, 
for  it  multiplied  copies  of  the  best-known  classics,  and 
by  putting  the  apparatus  for  critical  work  into  the  hands 
of  every  scholar,  it  paved  the  way  for  a  general  and  com- 
parative scientific  study  of  classical  texts.^  The  use  of 
printing  spread  with  remarkable  rapidity.  The  great 
centres  of  book  production  were  Venice,  Rome,  Cologne, 
Strassburg,  Nuremberg,  Augsburg,  and  Mainz.  Before 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  there  were  t^venty-two 
printing  establishments  at  Cologne,  twenty  at  Augsburg, 
seventeen  at  Nuremberg,  and  sixteen  at  Strassburg.^  The 
most  famous  printers,  whose  names  continually  appear  in 
the  history  of  early  editions,  were  Fust  and  Schoffer  at 
Mainz,  John  Auerbach  at  Basel  (1492-1516),  Zell  at 
Cologne,  the  Aldi   at  Venice  (1490-1597),'  John  Froben 

1  See  Prutz,  The  Age  of  the  Renaissance  (New  York,  1902). 

2  See  Cotton,  Typographical  Gazetteer,  3d  ed.  (Oxford,  1852-1S66). 

3  See  Brunei,  Manuel  de  Lihraire,  etc.,  8  vols.  (Paris,  1880)  ;  De  Vinne, 
The  Invention  of  Printing  (New  York,  187S)  ;  Hoe,  A  Short  History  of  the 
Printing  Press  (New  York,  1902)  ;  and  Faulman,  Geschichte  der  Buck- 
truckverkunst  (Vienna,  1882). 


THE   RENAISSANCE  287 

at  Basel  (1496-1527),  and  Christopher  Plantin  at  Antwerp 
(1554-1589).  The  first  press  to  be  set  up  in  England  was 
that  of  William  Caxton  in  1477.  The  first  press  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere  was  established  in  the  city  of  Mexico 
in  1540;  and  the  first  to  be  set  up  in  the  British  Colonies 
in  North  America  dates  from  1638  at  Harvard  College  and 
still  survives  under  the  name  of  the  University  Press.^ 

Hence,  the  first  great  impulse  toward  the  freer  spirit 
of  ancient  times  swept  over  Italy,  surging  on  to  other 
countries,  where  its  influence  took  many  forms.  The 
Renaissance  was  in  reality  not  so  much  a  new  epoch, 
but  rather  a  harking-back  to  the  civilisation  of  classical 
antiquity,  which  it  modified  to  suit  the  New  World  of 
Southern  Europe.  In  classical  scholarship,  we  find,  as 
in  the  early  days  of  Greece  and  Rome,  first,  the  accumu- 
lation of  material  for  study;  the  expansion  of  that  study 
in  various  ways;  the  development  of  Criticism  ^  which 
calls  into  its  service  many  ancillary  studies  —  Palaeo- 
graphy,^ Epigraphy,*  Numismatics,  a   knowledge  of   the 

^  The  first  printed  editions  of  classical  authors  is  interesting.  Thus  the 
editio  princeps  of  any  ancient  was  printed  at  Rome  and  was  a  copy  of 
Cicero,  Dc  Officiis,  in  1465.  The  first  work  printed  in  Greek  was  the 
'EpwriJ/xara  of  Constantinus  Lascaris  (Milan,  1476).  Theretofore,  in 
printed  Latin  books,  Greek  words  had  been  inserted  with  a  pen.  This 
work  of  Lascaris  was  set  up  according  to  its  parts  at  various  places  and 
times,  and  gathered  together  by  Aldus  into  one  book  (1495). 

^  See  Spingarn,  History  of  Literary  Criticism  in  the  Renaissance  (New 
York,  1899). 

'  As  with  Giovanni  Aurispa. 

*  As  with  Cyriacus  of  Ancona,  who  said  that  inscriptions  seemed  to 
give  a  greater  reason  and  a  truer  knowledge  than  even  books  themselves. 


288  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Graphic  and  Plastic  Arts/  Architecture,^  and  finally  the 
invention  of  a  means  for  making  the  apparatus  criticus  of 
learning  accessible  to  every  one. 

Thus,  the  Renaissance,  though  not,  as  IVfichelet  de- 
scribes it,  "  the  discovery  of  the  World  and  Man," 
was,  as  Walter  Pater  said,  "  a  love  of  the  things  of  the 
intellect  and  the  imagination  for  their  own  sake."  It 
was  an  intellectual  sunburst,  which  restored  to  modem 
times  all  that  was  glorious  in  the  centuries  of  Greek 
and  Roman  culture.  Dr.  Sandys  points  out  that  the 
metaphor  of  a  new  birth  was  first  associated  with  the 
earliest  revival  of  learning,  under  Charlemagne,  by  Modoin, 
the  Bishop  of  Autun,  in  this  golden  line:  — 

Aurea  Roma  iterum  renovata  renascitur  orbi.' 

*  As  with  Donatello  and  later  with  Michelangelo  and  Bramante. 

2  As  with  Brunelleschi  (1377-1446),  one  of  the  greatest  architects  of 
the  Renaissance.  It  was  he  who,  more  than  any  other,  revived  the  Ro- 
man or  classic  forms  of  architecture. 

'  For  a  critical  history  of  the  Renaissance  see  Voigt,  Die  Wiederbe- 
lebung  des  Klassischen  Allerthnms,  3d  ed.  (Berlin,  1893)  ;  Burckhardt, 
Geschichte  der  Renaissance  in  Italien  (Stuttgart,  1890-1891)  ;  id.,  KuUur 
der  Renaissance  in  Italien,  8th  ed.  (Leipzig,  1901)  ;  Symonds,  The  Re- 
naissance in  Italy  (London,  1887)  ;  Walter  Pater,  Studies  in  the  History 
of  the  Renaissance  (London,  1888) ;  Vernon  Lee,  Euphorion  (London, 
1884)  ;  Scott,  The  Renaissance  of  Art  in  Italy  (London,  1888) ;  Einstein, 
The  Italian  Renaissance  in  England  (New  York,  1902)  ;  IVIuntz,  Precursori 
e  Propugnatori  del  Rinascimento  (Florence,  1902)  ;  Sandys,  Lectures  on 
the  Revival  of  Learning  (Cambridge,  1905);  id.,  op.  cit.  pp.  1-123); 
Saintsbury,  A  History  of  Criticism,  i.  pp.  456-466  ;  ii.  1-108  (London, 
1901-1902) ;  and  for  a  convenient  summary,  Pearson,  A  Short  History 
of  the  Renaissance  (Boston,  1893).  See  De  Vinne,  Notable  Printers  of 
Italy  during  the  Fifteenth  Century  (New  York,  1910). 


VII 

DIVISION  INTO  PERIODS 

As  we  have  seen  already,  the  inspiration  given  by  Ital- 
ian scholars  extended  rapidly  over  the  whole  of  Europe. 
The  first  century  or  more  is  what  is  properly  to  be  called 
the  Renaissance  itself;  but  since  its  effects  have  lasted 
down  to  the  present  day,  it  may  be  said  that  we,  our- 
selves, are  still  living  and  experiencing  the  results  of 
that  great  revival.  Many  scholars,  therefore,  would 
regard  the  Renaissance  as  continuing  down  into  the 
twentieth  century,  calling  the  periods  (i)  the  Italian, 
(2)  the  French,  (3)  the  English  and  Dutch,  (4)  the  Ger- 
man, and  (5)  the  Cosmopolitan.  This  is  a  convenient 
mode  of  grouping  the  great  personalities  who  were  con- 
spicuous in  their  respective  periods;  but  roughly  we  may 
set  down  the  fifty  years  or  so  which  followed  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Italian  Renaissance  as  the  Post-Renaissance 
Period.  In  it  we  see  the  fruits  of  Italian  culture  gradually 
distributed  throughout  the  different  countries  of  Europe, 
until  there  were  developed  many  schools  of  learning, 
each  having  a  tinge  of  distinctive  nationality.^ 

^  See  Nisard,  op.  cit.,  passim;  Pokel,  Schriflstellerlexikon  (Leipzig, 
1882)  ;  and  Michaud,  Biographic  Universelle,  Aticienne  et  Moderne,  last 
edition,  45  vols.  (Paris,  1843-1865). 

u  289 


VIII 

THE  AGE   OF   ERASMUS 

While  the  impulse  given  by  Italy  and  Italian  scholarship 
was  quickly  felt  in  every  country,  the  other  countries 
needed  someone  of  commanding  personality  who  should 
be  able  to  interpret  this  great  intellectual  movement  to 
the  schools  and  peoples  of  Northern  Europe.  The  New 
Learning  must  not  be  imitative,  and  therefore  it  must 
not  remain  Italian;  but  after  its  fundamental  principles 
should  be  accepted,  they  must  be  dealt  with  according  to 
the  national  instinct  and  temperament  of  each  of  the 
peoples  of  the  North.  He  whose  mission  it  was  to  per- 
form this  splendid  work,  and  thus  to  stamp  his  memory 
upon  the  period  of  transition,  was  Desiderius  Erasmus, 
the  greatest  humanist  who  has  ever  lived,  and  in  whom 
Humanism  itself  is  vividly  personified.  The  facts  about 
his  life,  as  Professor  Emerton  has  said,  form  a  sort  of 
Erasmus-legend,  since  they  are  taken  from  passages  in  his 
writings  which  have  been  styled  autobiographical,  though 
the  author  himself  never  so  allowed  them  to  be  called. 
There  remain  also  1500  letters  from  his  pen  (for  he  was 
a  voluminous  and  ready  writer);  representing  at  least 
500  different  correspondents  —  people  of  every  grade  in 

290 


ERASMUS  291 

life,  from  the  most  lowly  to  those  who  sat  on  thrones.  It 
may  be  added  that  a  letter  from  Erasmus  was  regarded 
by  a  king  as  being  no  less  precious  and  no  less  an  honour 
than  was  a  letter  from  the  same  writer  to  a  village  school- 
master. So  great  became  his  influence  and  so  widespread 
his  fame,  that  the  fifty  years  from  i486  to  1536  constitute 
in  themselves  a  period  which  may  itself  be  called  almost 
*'  The  Age  of  Desiderius  Erasmus." 

Desiderius  Erasmus  was  bom  at  Rotterdam.  Ac- 
cording to  tradition  he  was  an  illegitimate  son,  who 
was,  nevertheless,  lovingly  cared  for  by  his  parents  until 
they  both  died  when  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age.^  He  was 
taught  in  the  well-known  school  at  Deventer,  and  later  at 
Bois-le-Duc,  where  he  says  that  he  "  wasted  "  some  three 
years,  suffering  from  the  narrowness  and  the  discomfort 
of  his  life.  Finally,  he  entered  the  monastery  near  Gouda, 
and  during  the  ten  years  of  his  stay  there,  he  took  priestly 
orders.     In  1492  —  significant  year!  —  he  left  the  mon- 

^  The  father  of  Erasmus  was  called,  in  his  native  Dutch,  Ga^rt  or 
Gerard ;  hence  the  name  of  Erasmus  in  the  vernacular  was  Gasrt  Gaert's. 
This  name,  Erasmus  himself  Latinized  and  Graecized  into  Desiderius 
Erasmus.  The  powerful  and  historically  accurate  novel  by  Charles  Reade, 
The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth,  gives  a  fictitious  account  of  the  elder  Gaert. 
The  book  may  be  commended  to  the  most  serious  reader,  since  it  displays 
the  later  Middle  Ages  and  the  early  Renaissance  in  minute  detail,  while 
yet  its  careful  knowledge  has  been  fused  by  the  genius  of  a  great  writer 
into  something  that  is  singularly  consistent  and  alive.  George  Eliot's 
Romola  is  pale  and  introspective  beside  this  masterpiece  of  Reade,  in 
which  every  page  displays  the  author's  virility  and  erudition. 


292  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

astery,  and,  taking  up  his  abode  at  Paris,  he  began  what 
we  should  now  describe  as  a  Hterary  caieer.  But  having 
regard  for  the  different  conditions  at  that  time,  he  might 
better  be  termed  an  independent  scholar,  teaching  and 
writing,  and  thus  making  an  income  which  brought  him, 
together  with  fame  and  many  favours,  the  right  of  living 
as  he  would  and  where  he  would.  His  mind  was  stimu- 
lated by  much  travel,  for  he  passed  to  Louvain,  to  England, 
to  Basel,  to  Freiburg,  and  he  spent  three  years  of  his  life 
in  Italy.  But  here  we  note  a  curious  fact:  that  the  man 
who  was  to  spread  Italian  culture  through  the  North 
was  himself  a  son  of  the  North,  receiving  in  the  North 
the  foundations  of  his  genial  and  brilliant  scholarship.  He 
was,  however,  in  fact,  a  genuine  citizen  of  the  world,  a  true 
cosmopolite,  equally  at  home  in  every  country,  and  always 
sure  of  a  friendly  greeting.  How  thoroughly  denational- 
ized Erasmus  was  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  when  he 
was  offered  a  readership  at  Louvain  he  declined  it,  because 
he  was  not  sufficiently  familiar  with  the  Dutch  language 
—  his  native  tongue!  It  is,  indeed,  quite  certain  that, 
though  he  lived  at  times  in  Paris,  he  understood  little 
French;  that,  though  he  was  frequently  in  Germany,  he 
knew  no  German ;  and  that,  however  greatly  he  admired 
Italy,  his  knowledge  of  Italian  was  very  slight.  In  fact, 
his  only  language  was  the  language  of  the  cultivated 
world  over  which  he  reigned  as  king,  —  a  sort  of  Latin, 
which  he  spoke  with  the  utmost  fluency.     Its  syntax  was 


ERASMUS  293 

purely  classical.  Its  vocabulary  was  adapted  and  en- 
larged so  as  to  mention  modem  things.  But  this  adapta- 
tion and  enlargement  were  largely  effected  by  the  influence 
of  Analogy,  so  that  his  newly  coined  words  seemed  as 
purely  Roman  as  did  the  newly  coined  words  of  Plautus.^ 
Having  a  perfect  command  of  this  noble  instrument  of 
speech,  he  could  travel  from  country  to  country,  and  meet 
the  distinguished  men  of  every  centre  of  learning  without 
considering  whether  their  native  tongue  happened  to  be 
French  or  English  or  Dutch  or  German  or  Italian.  Latin, 
adapted  to  every  condition  or  state  of  life,  rich  for  the 
eloquence  of  the  orator,  easy  and  playful  for  the  genial 
converse  of  social  life,  majestic  and  sonorous  for  the  stately 
ceremonies  of  religion,  —  here  was  the  lingua  linguarum 
in   this  Golden  Age  of  scholarship  and  letters. 

The  personality  of  Erasmus  was  so  delightful  that  in 
every  country,  in  every  town,  and  especially  in  every  abode 
of  learning,  he  was  welcomed  as  a  friend  and  almost  as  a 
monarch.  Indeed,  more  than  one  king  urged  him  to  attach 
himself  to  the  royal  court,  and  by  his  mere  presence  give 
to  it  an  additional  lustre.  But  Erasmus  cared  little  for 
courts.  He  preferred  the  sympathetic  companionship 
of  such  men  as  William  Grocyn,  who  first  taught  Greek  at 
Oxford,  of  the  great  Chancellor  of  England,  Sir  Thomas 
More,  and  of  Archbishop  Warham,  who  settled  upon 
him  a  liberal  income  for  life.     He  was  one  of  the  group 

'  See  supra,  pp.  145-147. 


294  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

of  cultivated  men  who  gathered  around  the  famous 
pubhsher,  John  Froben,  at  Basel;  and  in  like  manner, 
ha  was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  Venetian  publisher,  Aldus 
Manutius,  and  knew  well  all  the  members  of  the  circle 
associated  with  the  Aldine  Press.^ 

His  writings  fall  under  several  heads.  At  first,  he 
criticised  some  of  the  abuses  which  had  sprung  up  in  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  he  made  fun  of  the  scholastic  method 
in  philosophy.  The  drift  of  many  of  his  works  is  to  show 
that  forms  are  of  little  value  in  religion,  while  the  spirit 
of  genuine  piety  is  everything.  A  second  phase  of  the  life- 
work  of  Erasmus  is  found  in  his  editions  of  the  works  of 
Aristotle  and  Demosthenes,  with  translations,  in  part,  of 
Euripides,  Lucian,  and  the  Moralia  of  Plutarch.  Of 
Latin  authors,  not  including  the  Patristic  writers,  he  edited 
Terence  and  parts  of  Cicero  and  Livy.  More  important 
than  these  achievements,  and  in  fact  quite  epoch-making, 
was  his  critical  revision  of  the  New  Testament.  We  have 
already  seen  that  such  a  stupendous  undertaking  had  been 
suggested  by  Lorenzo  Valla,  in  his  Annotations  to  the  New 
Testament?  Erasmus,  in  a  preface  to  this  work  of  Valla's, 
pointed  out  the  obvious  fact  that  no  correct  translation  of 
tlie  Bible  could  be  made  except  by  a  trained  linguist,  and 


^  See  supra,  p.  286. 

^  Supra,  pp.  241,  281-2.  This  tractate  by  Valla  seems  to  have  been 
recovered  by  Erasmus  in  the  year  1505.  It  represents  the  starting-point 
in  Biblical  criticism  and  exegesis. 


ERASMUS  295 

that  the  original  Greek  manuscripts  ought  to  be  carefully 
revised  and  compared.  Evidently,  he  began  at  once  to 
equip  himself  for  such  an  undertaking;  for  in  1 51 2  —  seven 
years  later  —  he  writes  to  the  Englishman,  John  Colet,  the 
founder  of  St.  Paul's  School,  and  says  that  he  has  already 
collated  the  New  Testament  with  the  ancient  Greek  manu- 
scripts, and  that  he  has  annotated  it  in  more  than  a  thou- 
sand places. 

The  work,  when  completed,  was  published  at  the  press 
of  Froben  in  Basel.  It  is  very  easy  to  criticise  it  now,  and 
in  its  own  time  it  was  criticised  chiefly  because  Erasmus 
never  attained  the  sure  knowledge  of  Greek  that  some  of 
his  contemporaries  possessed.^  He  himself  once  said: 
"  My  Greek  studies  are  almost  too  much  for  my  courage, 
while  I  have  not  the  means  of  securing  books  or  the  help 
of  a  master."  He  also  wrote  that  "  without  Greek  the 
amplest  erudition  in  Latin  is  imperfect."  This,  of  course, 
was  in  his  early  years.  Long  afterward  he  rendered  into 
Latin  the  Greek  grammar  of  Theodorus  Gaza,  while  his 
Greek  texts  mark  the  climax  of  his  learning.^  It  is  also 
to  be  noted  that  in  1528  he  published  a  dialogue  called 
Ciceronianus,  in  which  he  discussed  Latin  style,  protesting 
against  limiting  modem  Latin  to  a  pedantic  imitation  of 

'  For  instance,  Guillaume  Bude  (Gulielmus  Budaeus),  the  French 
philologist,  who  was  a  distinguished  Grecian,  much  superior  to  Erasmus. 
See  his  Life  by  E.  de  Bude  (Paris,  1884). 

^  Such  as  his  translations  and  editions  already  mentioned,  besides  his 
critical  works  on  some  of  the  Greek  Fathers. 


296  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  vocabulary  and  phraseology  of  Cicero.*  This  was 
interesting  as  marking  the  coming  break  betsveen  the 
Italian  School  of  Latinity,  which  was  strictly  Ciceronian, 
and  the  other  schools  which  were  presently  to  arise  in 
Northern  countries.  In  the  same  year  he  also  wrote  his 
treatise  on  the  correct  pronunciation  of  Latin  and  Greek.^ 
With  regard  to  Greek,  he  established  a  pronunciation  which 
has  been  practically  adopted  in  all  the  Northern  countries 
of  Europe  and  in  the  United  States,  and  which  is  known 
after  him  as  "  the  Erasmian  Pronunciation."  Somewhat 
later  another  method,  called  "  the  Reuchlinian  Method," 
was  proposed,^  and  was  known  for  its  "lotacism"  because 
of  the  vowels,  r),  t,  v,  ei,  and  vi,  all  have  the  sound  of  i 
in  the  word  machine.  It  might  have  been  argued  that, 
since  Greek  remains  a  living  language,  scholars  ought  to 
pronounce  it  as  the  Greeks  of  that  day  pronounced  it ; 
but  many  changes  had  crept  in  since  the  classical  period, 
so  that  the  pronunciation  of  educated  Greeks  was  known 
to  differ  very  largely  from  the  ancient  pronunciation. 
Hence,  as  a  common  standard,  most  countries  have  held 
to  the  Erasmian  method. 

As  to  the  pronunciation  of  Latin  in  the  time  of 
Erasmus,  it  was  largely  that  of  the  Italians,  a  fact  made 

*  Infra,  p.  303. 

2  See  W.  G.  Clark  in  the  (English)  Journal  of  Philology,  i.  2  ;  98-108. 

^  By  Johann  Reuchlin  (loannes  Capnio),  an  admirable  Grecian,  and 
also  an  erudite  Hebrew  scholar,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Erasmus,  and 
was  regarded  as  second  in  learning  only  to  him. 


ERASMUS  297 

evident  by  Erasmus  himself  in  his  use  of  one  pronuncia- 
tion in  whatever  country  he  might  be,  and  before  what- 
ever universities  he  might  lecture.  Scholars  retained  for 
all  practical  purposes  the  most  essential  features  of  it, 
because,  coming  from  all  the  countries  of  Europe  and 
fraternising  everywhere,  this  intercourse  tended  to  main- 
tain a  general  tradition  which  was  not  seriously  disturbed 
for  some  time  after.^ 

Erasmus,  though  easy-going  and  fond  of  social  pleasure, 
nevertheless  accomplished  an  amount  of  serious  work 
which  is  prodigious  when  one  gathers  it  together  and 
views  it  as  a  whole.  Concerning  his  semi-theological  works 
this  is  no  place  to  speak;  and  yet  they  give  a  very  char- 
acteristic picture  of  his  mental  attitude  toward  life,  and 
toward  all  things  that  have  to  do  with  life.  In  the  early 
part  of  his  career  he  wrote  books  which,  with  keen  wit, 
satirised  the  failings  of  the  clergy.  Such  were  his  Adagia 
(1508),  his  Encomium  MoricB,  or  Praise  of  Folly  (1509),  and 
especially  his  famous  Colloguia,  or  dialogues  (15  24)  ,2  which 
abound   in   lively   satire,   and   flashes   of   inimitable  wit. 


^  See  Erasmus,  De  Recta  Lalini  Grceciqne  Sermonis  Pronunciatione 
(Basel,  1528) ;  Zacher,  Die  Aussprache  des  Griechischen  (Leipzig,  1888)  ; 
Blass,  The  Pronunciation  of  Ancient  Greek,  Eng.  trans.  (Cambridge,  1890) ; 
and  Corssen,  Ucber  Aussprache  etc.  der  Lateinischen  Sprache  (Berlin,  1870). 

2  His  writings  may  be  classed  as  (a)  theological ;  {h)  satirical ;  (c) 
educational;  {d)  philological;  (e)  critical;  (/)  literary;  as  in  his  very 
numerous  letters,  and  (g)  expository'  in  such  lectures  and  discourses 
as  he  chose  to  give  in  a  delightfully  unconventional  way. 


298  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

But  when  Martin  Luther  broke  with  the  Church,  and 
declared  his  independence  of  the  Papacy,  Erasmus  could 
not  follow  him.  His  tranquil  good  sense,  while  it  ad- 
mitted that  certain  abuses  were  temporarily  to'^ije  seen, 
had  no  sympathy  with  Luther,  but  believed  that  all  these 
wrongs  would  right  themselves  through  the  wisdom  of 
the  Church  itself.  Therefore,  he  refused  to  break  with 
the  splendid  traditions  of  papal  Rome,  and  he  died  a 
Catholic,  although  not  greatly  heeding  external  forms  in 
his  religion.  This  fact  deserves  mention  here  because  if 
shows  how  truly  and  unfeignedly  Erasmus  was  a  hu- 
manist—  as  truly  as  was  Horace  in  the  Augustan  Age  at 
Rome,  His  motto  might  well  have  been  that  of  the  genial 
poet  who  praised  the  Golden  Mean,  and  who  declared:  — 

"Est  modus  in  rebus,  sunt  certi  denique  fines, 
Quos  ultraque  citraque  nequit  consistere  rectum." 

Professor  Emerton  does  not  admit  that  Erasmus  was  a 
genius;  yet  who  but  a  very  great  genius  could  have  accom- 
plished what  was  accomplished  by  Erasmus?  Who,  at 
that  particular  moment,  could  have  been  so  absolutely  the 
Man  of  his  Time  ?  He  exercised,  by  his  peculiarly  winning 
personality,  an  influence  which  was  felt  all  over  Europe. 
He  w^as  a  king  of  letters,  a  man  of  extraordinary  reading, 
of  a  sane  and  yet  brilliant  and  original  mind,  a  contributor 
in  a  score  of  ways  to  the  progress  of  learning  and  the  uni- 
fication of  classical  philology.     All  his  influence  was  for 


ERASMUS  299 

good.  There  was  no  blot  upon  his  character,  and  his 
aspirations  were  always  noble.  He  had  no  personal  pride 
as  to  his  own  accomplishments;  he  was  "  a  friend  of  all 
the  world."  The  work  which  he  performed  in  all  these 
different  ways  was  a  serious  one,  and  it  was  seriously 
expressed  by  Erasmus  in  tsvo  sentences  that  were  penned 
by  him  in  the  year  before  his  death :  — 

"  I  used  my  best  endeavours  to  free  the  rising  genera- 
tion from  the  depths  of  ignorance,  and  to  inspire  it  with 
a  thirst  for  better  studies.  I  wTote,  not  for  Italy,  but  for 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands."  ^ 

Important  Editiones  Principes  or  the  Fifteenth  Century 

I.  Greek 

1481.        Theocritus  {Id.  i.-xvrn.),  together  with  Hesiod,  Works 

and  Days. 
1488.         Homer  (ed.  Chalcondylas) .     Valla's  Latin  trans,  of  the 

Iliad  was  printed  as  early  as  1474. 
1495.         Hesiod,  Opera  omnia  (Aldus). 
1495-98.   Aristotle  (Aldus). 

^  Erasmus,  Opera,  ix,  1440  (Basel,  1540).  See  the  lives  of  Erasmus  and 
the  studies  of  his  character  and  work  by  De  Laur  (Paris,  1872) ;  Nisard, 
Erasmi  Epistolcc,  i  (1484-1514),  edited  by  P.  S.  Allen  (Oxford,  1906); 
Jebb,  Erasmus  (London,  1890) ;  Froude,  Erasmus  (London,  1894) ; 
Emerton,  Erasmus  (Cambridge,  1899)  ;  Pennington,  Erasmus  (London, 
1901).  See  also  Nichols,  The  Epistles  of  Erasmus  (1901-1904) ;  Wood- 
ward, Erasmus  on  Education,  (New  York,  1904) ;  De  Nolhac,  Erasme  en 
Italic  (Paris,  1888);  and  Sandys,  Lectures  on  the  Revival  of  Learning, 
pp.  162-167,  ^nd  pp.  177-178  (Cambridge,  1905). 


300  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

V 

1496.  Euripides,  Med.,  Hypp.,  Ale,  Aitdrom.  (Lascaris), 
Apollonius  (Lascaris),  Lucian  (in  Florence). 

1498.  Aristophanes   (excl.   Lys.   and   Thesm.). 

1499.  Aratus  {hi  Astronomi  vett.  ap.  Aldum). 

II.  Latin. 

1465.  Cicero,  De  Officiis.  First  printed  edition  of  a  classical 
author.  Cf .  art.  "  Typography "  in  Encycl.  Brit. 
Lactantius  (Rome). 

1469.  Caesar,  Vergil,   Livy,  Lucan,  Apuleius,   GelHus  (Rome). 

1470.  Persius,  Juvenal,  Martial,  Quintilian,  Suetonius  (Rome). 

Tacitus,  Juvenal,  Sallust,   Horace   (Venice),  Terence 
(Strassburg). 

1471.  Ovid  (Rome,  Bonn),  Nepos  (Venice). 

1472.  Plautus    (G.    Merula),    Catullus,   Tibullus,    Propertius 

Statius  (Venice). 

1473.  Lucretius  (Brixiae). 

1474.  Valerius  Flaccus  (Bonn). 

1475.  Seneca  (Prose  Works),  Sallust  (first  volume   issued   in 

octavo). 

1484.  Seneca  (Tragedies)  at  Ferrara. 

1485.  PHny  the  Younger  (Venice). 
1498.         Cicero,  Opera  Omnia.^ 

1  See  Brunei,  Manuel  de  Libraire,  8  vols.  (Paris,  1880) ;  Schiick,  Aldus 
Manulius  und  seine  ZeUgenossen  (Berlin,  1862) ;  Didot,  Aide  Mamice, 
pp.  Ixviii  and  647  (Paris,  1875). 


IX 

THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM 

The  task  of  Erasmus  had  been  the  binding  together 
of  Northern  energy  and  Southern  culture.  He  had  prac- 
tically made  the  whole  world  of  Western  Europe  one  in 
everything  which  pertained  to  scholarship.  Learned  men 
came  and  went  with  perfect  freedom  from  country  to 
country,  from  monastery  to  monastery,  and  from  court  to 
court,  needing  no  passport,  save  the  cachet  of  a  liberal 
education.  But  this  age  of  enlightenment  was  to  last  only 
for  a  short  time.  Even  while  Erasmus  lived,  the  so-called 
Protestant  Reformation  burst  forth  in  Germany,  and 
soon  divided  all  of  Europe  into  hostile  camps.  What- 
ever may  be  one's  religious  belief,  he  can  but  regret  the 
effect  which  this  religious  antagonism  had  upon  the 
immediate  future  of  classical  scholarship.  It  divided 
countries  according  to  the  dogmas  of  their  princes.  It 
put  a  sudden  and  grievous  end  to  the  genial  intercourse  of 
humanists.  It  made  the  great  universities  appear  like 
hostile  fortresses,  from  which  the  inmates  no  longer  sent 
forth  works  of  learning  for  the  benefit  of  every  land  alike ; 
but  rather  missiles  in  the  shape  of  angry  tracts  or  ponderous 

tomes  that  wasted  learning  and  altered  the  mellow  geniality 

30J 


302  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

of  Ilumanism  into  yelpings  and  vituperation,  scattering  vile 
language  all  over  Europe.  Thus,  the  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  England,  of  Leyden  and 
Utrecht  in  Holland,  of  Marburg,  Konigsberg,  and  Jena 
in  Germany,  thundered  out  their  theological  fulminations 
on  the  Protestant  side,  while  from  Wiirzburg,  Gratz, 
Innsbruck,  Paris,  and  Louvain,  learned  treatises  were 
mingled  with  the  most  scurrilous  abuse  of  Protestant 
scholars  who  had  written  on  the  same  subject.^ 

Nevertheless,  the  odium  theologicum  could  not  alto- 
gether eliminate  the  love  of  what  had  belonged  to  the 
earlier  epoch.  Luther  might  rage  in  Germany;  and  the 
papal  sword  might  flash  in  Italy;  while  Holland  and 
England  drew  together  in  a  political  and  scholarly  union, 
and  France  went  its  own  way,  Catholic  as  yet,  but  liberally 
so.  The  difference  lay  in  the  fact  that  scholarship  took 
on  different  forms  in  different  countries.  The  learned 
world  was  not  united  as  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  Erasmus. 
Young  Englishmen  had  formerly  visited  Italy  and  Paris 
to  pursue  their  studies;  but  now  they  went  to  Leyden  or 
to  Utrecht.  The  German  student,  according  to  his  faith, 
went  to  a  school  or  university  where  that  faith  was  taught. 
The  young  Frenchman  studied  at  one  or  another  of  the 
universities  that  were  Catholic.  Thus,  classical  scholar- 
ship in  Europe  became  national  rather  than  universal. 
As  for  Italy,  its  scholars  had  remained  true  to  the  early 

1  See  Nisard,  Les  Gladiateurs  de  la  Republique  de  Lettres  (Paris,  1889). 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  303 

Renaissance,  so  that  the  Italian  School  remained  Cicero- 
nian to  the  last  degree,  following  closely  the  precepts 
of  Lorenzo  Valla.  Its  Latin  was  wholly  that  of  Cicero. 
Not  a  word,  nor  a  phrase,  nor  a  line  was  tolerated,  save 
when  it  could  be  shown  absolutely  to  have  the  purity  of 
diction  and  the  rhythmic  cadence  of  the  great  Roman 
orator.  It  is  extraordinary  to  learn  what  pains  were  taken 
to  secure  this  perfect  imitation.  Thus  Cardinal  Pietro 
Bembo  was  probably  the  most  perfect  imitator  of  Cicero 
that  ever  lived.^  His  Latin  in  every  shade,  in  every  note, 
in  every  inflection,  recalls  the  Latin  of  his  master  and 
model.  It  is  related  that  he  would  not  speak  Latin  with 
any  casual  scholar,  lest  by  doing  so  he  should  mar  the 
perfection  of  his  own  Latinity.  Herein  he  was  very 
different  from  Erasmus,  whose  colloquial  style  had  been 
syntactically  correct,  while  yet  allowing  his  own  personality 
to  appear  in  everything  that  he  wrote  and  said.  This 
individual  touch  of  his  gave  popularity  to  all  his  writings. 
He  had  special  characteristic,  of  his  own,  —  so  that  one 
could  feel  in  all  that  was  Erasmian  the  pungent  wit, 
the  sympathetic  mood,  and  the  geniality  of  the  man  him- 
self. But  Bembo  and  his  fellow  Cardinal,  Sadoleto,^ 
the  most  distinguished  representatives  of  the  Italian  School, 
wasted  themselves  on  style  alone.  What  they  wrote  and 
spoke  was  delightfully  conceived  in  the  Ciceronian  manner, 

^  1470-1547.   See  Symonds,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy,  ii.  pp.  409-415. 
*I477-I547.   See  Joly,  Etude  sur  Sadolet  (Caen,  1857). 


304  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

but  it  had  no  force,  no  personal  power  to  attract  the  Hstener. 
One  felt  that  the  writer  or  speaker  was  too  self-conscious, 
and  too  much  afraid  of  making  a  sh'ght  slip  here  or  there. 
Hence  the  ItaHan  School  remained  a  school  of  literature, 
contenting  itself  with  the  authors  of  the  Golden  Age, 
whom  they  read  and  reread  and  annotated  from  a  strictly 
literary  point  of  view.  It  was  a  school  of  style  —  style 
always,  and,  therefore,  style  that  degenerated  into  puerility. 
As  classical  learning  penetrated  th.e_coun tries  North  and 
West  of  Italy,  it  took  on  a  more  independent  form.  It, 
likewise,  began  to  show  a  touch  of  the  critical  element, 
and  also  a  desire  to  provide  both  instruments  and  aids  for 
scholarly  activity.  Thus,  in  Italy,  although  many  vocabu- 
laries and  glossaries  were  produced,  they  were  scattered 
and  fragmentary,  and  each  represented  half  a  dozen  others. 
It  was  in  1483,  that  loannes  Crastenus  printed  the  first 
Greek-Latin  vocabulary,  which  increased  in  size  as  it 
passed  through  several  editions.  In  1497  ^  much  more 
complete  work  of  the  same  character  was  issued  from 
the  Aldine  Press,  and  this  was  speedily  followed  by  lexi- 
cons bearing  the  name  of  Calepinus,  Bude  (Budaeus), 
Gessner,  Constantine,  and  others.  Most  important  is 
the  dictionary  of  Bude  (Paris,  1529;  Basel,  1530).  It 
was  re-edited  and  much  enlarged  by  Robert  Etienne, 
(Paris,  1548).  This  dictionary  is  the  first  to  have  been 
published  after  the  Renaissance.  It  is  particularly  exact 
in  its  explanation  of  legal  terms.     Robert  Etienne,  or,  as 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  305 

he  called  himself,  Robertus  Stephanus  (absurdly  styled  by 
the  English,  "  Robert  Stephens"),  was  at  once  a  printer 
and  a  man  of  learning;  and  his  son,  Henri  Etienne,  or,  as 
he  called  himself,  Henricus  Stephanus,*  were  two  very 
important  figures  in  the  history  of  classical  studies  in 
France.  The  father  issued  carefully  collated  editions  of 
Horace,  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis,  and  Dio  Cassius. 
But  his  most  important  production  was  his  Latin  dic- 
tionary {Thesaurus  Linguce  Latina),  which  appeared  in 
parts  during  the  years  1 531-1536.  It  was  not  an  entirely 
original  work,  being  based  upon  the  vocabulary  of  Bud^, 
yet  for  a  long  time  no  better  lexicon  was  known  to  Europe. 
Henri  Etienne,  in  1572,  published  a  work  that  is  most 
remarkable.  It  was  a  Greek  lexicon  in  five  volumes 
{Thesaurus  Linguce  Greece) .  It  defined  more  than  100,000 
Greek  words  with  references  to  authorities.  It  was  a 
compilation  of  remarkable  industry  and  scholarship,  and 
was  many  times  re-edited  —  last  of  all  by  Dindorf  (Paris, 
1856  foil.).  To  this  day,  it  remains  unrivalled  as  being 
the  most  complete  lexicon  of  Greek  known  to  the  world. 
France  was  now  the  mother  of  a  brilliant  group  of  schol- 
ars, or  at  least  the  centre  to  which  they  flocked.  The 
College  de  France,  established  by  Francis  I,  gave  shelter 
and  recognition  to  many  very  remarkable  men,  constituting 

^  See  Egger,  UHellenisme  en  France,  2  vols.  (Paris,  1869);  id.  pp. 
198  foil. ;  Pattison,  Essays,  i.  62-124  (Oxford,  1889) ;  Feugere,  Essai  sur 
la  Vie  et  les  Ouvrages  de  Henri  Etienne  (Paris,  1853);  Pokel,  5.t>. ;  and 
Lefranc,  Histoire  du  College  de  France  (Paris,  1893). 


3o6  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

what  may  be  roughly  called  the  French  School  of  Classical 
Philology.  This  school  was  noted  for  its  acute  criticism 
and  its  wide  range  of  encyclopasdic  knowledge.  With  the 
Etiennes  must  be  reckoned  the  memorable  names  of  Adrien 
Turnebe  (Hadrianus  Turnebus)/  who  was  the  greatest 
Greek  scholar  of  his  time;  Denis  Lambin  (Dionysius 
Lambinus),^  Director  also  of  the  Royal  Printing  Establish- 
ment; Marc  Antoine  Muret  (Marcus  Antonius  Muretus),^ 
one  of  the  greatest  stylists  of  any  period;  Charles  du 
Fresne,  sieur  du  Cange/  a  writer  on  Low  Latin,  whose  glos- 
saries are  still  in  vogue,  and  have  been  many  times  re- 
edited;  Bernard  de  Montfaucon,^  the  founder  of  scientific 
Palaeography;  and  greatest  of  all,  Isaac  Casaubon  (Casau- 
bonus),^  whose  prodigious  learning  was  surpassed  by  only 
one  man  of  his  own  time  or  for  centuries  after. 

'  1512-1565.  See  Pokel,  op.  cit.,  s.v.;  and  Clement,  De  Adriani 
Turnaibi  Pracjalionibiis,  p.  7  (Paris,  1899). 

"^  1520-1572.  See  Mattaire,  Histor'ia  Typographorum  Aliquot  Parisi- 
ensiimi  (London,  1717);  the  appendix  to  Ore\\\,  Onomasticon  Ciceronis, 
I.  pp.  478-491  (Zurich,  1861),  3d  ed. ;  and  the  preface  to  Munro's 
Lucretius,  pp.  14-16. 

'  1 5  26-1 585.  His  orations  and  a  part  of  his  other  works  are  printed  ; 
Teubner  edition,  ed.  by  Frey  (Leipzig,  1887-1888)  ;  Pattison,  Essays, 
i.  124-132,  last  ed.  (Oxford,  1889);  and  Dejob,  Marc  Antoine  Muret 
(Paris,  1861). 

*  1610-1688.  See  Hardouin,  Essai  sur  la  Vie  el  les  Ouvrages  de  du 
Cange  (Paris,  1849). 

^  1655-1741.  See  de  Broglie,  La  Sociele  de  I'Abbaye  de  Saint-Ger- 
main, 2  vols.  (Paris,  1891). 

*  1559-1614.  The  standard  life  of  Isaac  Casaubon  must  apparently 
always  remain  that  of  Mark  Pattison,  ed.  by  Nettleship,  2d  ed.  (Oxford, 
1892). 


THE    PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  307 

Turnebus  was  the  most  celebrated  Grecian  of  this  period, 
and  his  mind  was  intensely  critical.  Beside  editing  several 
Greek  and  Roman  authors,  he  wrote  comm.entaries  on 
Varro  de  Lingua  Latina,  and  on  Horace.  He  likewise  left 
thirty  books  of  Adversaria,  consisting  of  notes  and  critical 
comments,  many  of  which  were  brilliant  and  of  great  value. 
Lambinus  is  to  be  remembered  as  having  first  made  the 
text  of  Lucretius  fairly  intelligible.  Before  his  time,  whole 
passages  had  been  impossible  to  read.  But  the  critical 
mind  of  Lambinus  threw  light  upon  what  had  been  dark, 
and  by  judicious  emendation  he  gave  to  the  world  an  edi- 
tion of  the  great  Epicurean,  upon  which  Lachmann  after- 
ward based  his  epoch-making  work.  Lambinus  spent 
eleven  years  in  Rome  and  devoted  himself  to  the  collation 
of  manuscripts  in  the  Vatican  Library.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  (1561),  he  was  called  to  Paris  as  Professor  of  Greek 
and  Latin,  and  employed  his  profound  learning  with  sobri- 
ety and  admirable  results,  so  that  not  only  his  editions  of 
Lucretius,  but  those  also  of  Plautus,  Cicero,  and  Horace 
make  his  memory  a  very  special  one  in  the  minds  of  classi- 
cal scholars.  Few  of  his  contemporaries  had  such  vast 
learning,  and  few  had  such  profound  knowledge  of  an  au- 
thor's style.  He  died  of  apoplexy,  caused  by  the  murders 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  night.  Modem  commentators  owe 
to  Lambinus  much  of  the  material  which  they  use  without 
giving  credit  to  this  splendid  scholar  of  the  French  Renais- 
sance. 


3o8  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

His  contemporary,  Muretus,  spent  several  years  as  his 
companion  in  Rome,  and  became  well  known  for  his  work 
in  editing  various  classical  authors,  such  as  Terence,  Ca- 
tullus, Tibullus,  Propertius,  and  Seneca.  As  a  critic  he 
produced  a  volume  of  Varies  Lectiones,  but  he  was  most 
renowned  for  the  purity  of  his  Latin  style.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen  he  wrote  Latin  with  great  fluency  and  ease,  and 
afterwards  in  the  University  of  Paris  his  orations  in  Latin 
see^d  as  splendid  as  those  of  Cicero.  They  were  read 
indeed  in  schools  side  by  side  with  Cicero  as  late  as  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  various  editions  were  made 
of  them. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  the  Post-  Renaissance  scholars 
was  Isaac  Casaubon  (Casaubonus) ,  who  deserved  the  title 
which  Varro  bore  of  being  essentially  a  TroXviarcop.  One  of 
his  contemporaries  declared :  "  He  is  the  most  learned  of  all 
men  who  live  to-day."  He  was  born  in  Geneva,  the  son  of 
a  Huguenot  minister,  from  whom  he  received  all  his  instruc- 
tion until  he  reached  the  age  of  nineteen.  In  these  troubled 
years  the  family  often  had  to  flee  from  home  to  save  their 
lives  from  their  armed  opponents.  Pattison  relates  that, 
while  hiding  in  a  cave,  Isaac  received  his  first  lesson  in 
Greek.  At  nineteen  he  was  sent  to  the  Academy  (now  the 
University)  of  Geneva,  where  he  studied  Greek  under 
Portus,  a  Cretan.  When  Portus  died  he  recommended  his 
learned  pupil  as  his  successor,  and  thus  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  he  became  Professor  of  Greek.     Four  years  later  he 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  309 

was  called  to  a  like  position  in  Montpellier,  but  there,  as 
at  Geneva,  he  sufifered  from  lack  of  a  sufficient  library. 
Shortly  afterward  he  went  to  Paris,  owing  to  the  influence 
of  Henry  IV.  His  Calvinism  prevented  him  from  receiving 
a  professorship  in  the  University,  and  instead  he  was  made 
Royal  Librarian,  a  position  which  he  held  until  the  murder 
of  the  King,  when  he  felt  his  position  insecure;  so  that  in 
1610  he  crossed  the  Channel  to  England,  where  James  I 
showed  him  great  favour  and  made  him  prebendary  of 
Canterbury  Cathedral  and  Westminster.  In  the  great 
abbey  he  lies  buried.  Casaubon  was  immensely  erudite 
both  in  theological  and  in  classical  scholarship.  As  a 
theologian  he  wrote  a  work  on  ecclesiastical  freedom  (1607) , 
and  especially  his  Exercitationes  Contra  Baronium  (16 14), 
in  which  he  sharply  attacked  the  chronological  work  of 
Cardinal  Baronius.^ 

Casaubon  was  not  brilliant,  nor  was  he  possessed  of  so 
keen  and  searching  a  mind  as  that  of  his  great  contem- 
porary Scaliger,  but  his  tolerant  spirit  and  enormous  read- 
ing made  him  famous  throughout  Europe.  Until  he  came 
to  Paris  he  had  been  greatly  hampered  by  the  lack  of  books. 

1  Caesar  Baronius,  who  became  Cardinal  in  1596  and  librarian  of  the 
Vatican  (1597),  was  the  author  of  the  work  mentioned  above,  a  chronology 
from  the  birth  of  Christ  to  1198  a.d.  It  cost  him  twenty-seven  years 
of  labour,  and  has  been  added  to  in  modem  times,  even  as  recently  as 
1864.  Baronius  was  a  clever  and  diverting  writer,  but  Casaubon  charged 
him  with  many  errors,  owing  to  his  ignorance  of  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
He  died  in  1607,  and,  therefore,  never  lived  to  read  the  attack  upon  him 
by  Casaubon. 


3IO  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

At  Geneva  and  at  Montpellier  there  were  no  libraries  of 
importance.  He  was  obliged  to  borrow  necessary  volumes 
from  other  scholars  to  whose  homes  he  walked  great  dis- 
tances. These  volumes  he  copied  laboriously  with  his  own 
hand,  and  it  is  said  that  in  the  case  of  smaller  books,  he 
memorised  them.  Such  practices,  while  tiresome,  fixed  in 
his  memory  the  texts  themselves  and  made  him  exceedingly 
exact  in  his  learning.  Many  countries  sought  him  out ; 
but  it  was  in  England  that  his  final  home  was  made.  He 
was  welcomed  at  all  the  universities,  and  was  especially 
agreeable  to  the  King  (James  I),  who  was  fond  of  theo- 
logical discussion.  In  fact,  on  one  occasion,  when  there 
was  some  difficulty  about  paying  his  pension,  the  King 
wrote  with  his  own  hand :  — 

"  Chanceler  of  my  Excheker,  I  will  have  Mr.  Casaubon  paid 
before  me,  my  wife,  and  my  bames." 

It  was  also  by  the  personal  intervention  of  King  James 
that  Casaubon's  library,  which  had  been  stored  in  Paris,  was 
sent  over  to  England.  The  English  people  could  hardly 
understand  such  favour,  and  Casaubon  became  very  unpop- 
ular. He  could  speak  no  English,  and  his  scholarship  was 
not  appreciated  by  the  mob.  Consequently,  he  was  always 
in  danger  of  some  ruffianly  assault.  At  night  his  windows 
were  broken,  and  by  day  his  children  were  stoned  in  the 
streets.  In  France,  of  course,  after  he  had  definitely  de- 
cided not  to  return  from  England,  he  was  equally  disliked, 
being  regarded  as  a  renegade  who  had  sold  his  religious 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  31I 

belief  for  English  gold.  He  died  in  the  year  which  wit- 
nessed the  publication  of  a  great  controversial  work  which 
was,  nevertheless,  wholly  unworthy  of  his  powers. 

Casaubon  was  a  man  of  encyclopeedic  knowledge.  He 
was  as  familiar  with  out-of-the-way  authors,  such  as  those 
of  the  Historia  Augusta,  and  Dionysius  of  Halicamassus, 
as  with  the  better-known  classics,  such  as  Persius  and  Po- 
lybius.  During  the  four  years  of  his  visit  in  England,  he 
contributed  little  to  Classical  Philology,  In  fact,  his  most 
memorable  books  were  those  which  antedate  his  stay  in 
Paris,  and  at  a  time  when  his  reading  was  done  under  so 
great  difficulty.  It  was  given  to  him  to  take  up  a  number  of 
authors,  and  so  thoroughly  to  comment  on  them  as  to  leave 
little  for  succeeding  scholars  in  the  way  of  exegesis.  Thus 
he  brought  out  an  edition  of  the  C/^arac/gre5  of  Theophrastus 
as  early  as  1592,  and  an  extraordinarily  complete  Athenaeus 
in  1598.*  His  exliaustive  edition  of  Persius^  was  called 
by  Scaliger  "divine";  while  his  Suetonius  passed  through 
three  editions  in  the  course  of  a  few  years.  In  his  Polybius^ 
is  a  remarkable  introduction  on  the  subject  of  Greek 
Historiography.  Less  full  and  of  less  lasting  value  were 
his  annotations  of  other  authors,  but  he  deserves  great  and 
enduring  credit  for  having  been  the  first  to  study  Roman 

'  Incorporated  into  Schweighauser's  edition  (1840). 
2  Published  in  1605,  and  pillaged  by  every  commentator  since  that 
time. 

'  PubUshed  in  1609. 


312  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

satire/  —  a  subject  which  was,  and  has  been  since,  of 
remarkable  interest  to  all  classicists.^ 

Still  representing  the  French  School  of  classical  study,  we 
have  the  remarkable  lexicographer,  Charles  du  Fresne, 
sieur  du  Cange,  who  did  for  Low  Latin  what  Valla  in  an 
earlier  century  had  done  for  the  Ciceronian  tongue.  Hold- 
ing a  lucrative  office  in  Paris,  this  scholar  gave  himself  up 
for  twenty  years  to  unremitting  industry,  so  that  it  has  been 
said  that  the  number  of  his  books  would  be  incredible  if 
we  had  not  the  original  manuscripts  all  written  by  his  own 
hand.  To  enumerate  them  would  here  be  impossible,  but 
the  two  by  which  he  is  best  known  deserve  especial  mention. 
The  first  of  them  is  a  glossary,  as  he  modestly  called  it,  to 
the  writers  of  Medieval  and  Low  Latin;  ^  and  a  like  glos- 
sary to  the  writers  of  Late  Greek.*  Into  these  tomes  he 
gathered  all  the  words  that  he  could  find  in  legal  docu- 
ments, charters,  manuscripts,  diplomas,  titles,  and  many 
printed  documents,  all  written  in  the  mixed  language 
which  prevailed  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  for  some  time 
afterward.  His  sources  were  drawn  from  the  archives 
of  Paris ;  and,  therefore,  ponderous  though  they  were,  suc- 
ceeding scholars  have  added  to  them  almost  in  each  decade, 
until  at  present  every  issue  is  practically  an  Antibarharus. 
From  his  pen  came  also  an  excellent  edition  of  the  Byzan- 
tine Historians.     His  Greek  glossary  was  hardly  so  com- 

'  De  Satyrica  Grceca  Poesi  et  Romanorum  Satira  (1605). 

*  The  original  was  edited  by  Rambach  (Halle,  1774). 

'  Glossarium  ad  Scriptores  Media  et  Infimce  Latinitatis  (1678). 

*  Glossarium  ad  Scriptores  et  hijimce  Gracitatis  (1688). 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  313 

plete  as  his  Latin  one,  and  in  fact  was  published  in  the  year 
of  his  death.  His  son  Hved  only  four  years ;  and  finally, 
the  French  Government,  knowing  how  valuable  were  the 
writings  of  Du  Cange,  collected  the  greater  part  of  his 
manuscripts,  which  are  now  contained  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale  in  Paris.^ 

Worthy  of  recollection  was  another  Frenchman  of  this 
period,  Bernard  de  Montfaucon,  a  nobleman  by  birth, 
but  forced  through  ill  health  to  a  life  of  seclusion  and  study. 
There  are  few  incidents  in  his  career  which  present  much 
variety,  since  he  passed  successively  from  one  abbey  to 
another,  examining  and  annotating  their  numerous  manu- 
scripts. From  1698  to  1701,  he  spent  most  of  his  time  in 
Rome.  His  first  publication  was  a  work  entitled  Analecta 
GrcBca  (1688) ,  never  completely  finished.  But  he  is  best  re- 
membered in  Archaeology  by  his  work  in  ten  folio  volumes,^ 
in  which  drawings  made  by  him  of  antique  objects  and 
monuments  gave  to  the  world  something  that  was  wholly 
new.  It  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  contributions 
made  to  the  study  of  Archeeology;  and  his  Palceographia 

^  See  Hardouin,  op.  cit.  The  last  and  most  complete  Glossarium  to 
the  mediaeval  Latin  is  that  edited  by  Favre,  10  vols.''(Niort,  1884-1887). 

^  L'Antiquite  Expliquee  et  Representee  en  Figures.  This  book  was  a 
wonderful  storehouse  of  antiquities.  It  was  first  brought  out  by  sub- 
scription in  1719,  and  in  less  than  two  months  the  first  edition  (18,000 
volimies)  was  sold,  and  a  new  edition  of  2500  volumes  was  printed 
in  the  same  year,  with  a  supplementary  edition  of  five  more  volumes. 
A  full  list  of  his  contributions  to  Archaeology  will  be  found  in  the  Nou- 
velle  Biographic  Generate,  s.v. 


314  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

GrcBca  has  never  yet  been  superseded.  Somewhat  eariier 
(1681),  there  had  appeared  a  work  on  Palaeography/ 
written  by  Jean  Mabillon,  an  inmate  of  the  beautiful  abbey 
of  Saint  Germain,^  the  earliest  seat  of  the  learned  Benedic- 
tine Order  in  France.  The  validity  of  the  abbey's  charters 
had  been  attacked,  and  Mabillon  wrote  the  work  just  men- 
tioned to  show  how  false  documents  could  be  distinguished 
from  genuine  ones,  and  how  to  determine  th-e--date  of  a 
manuscript  by  comparison  with  others.  The  difference 
between  the  work  of  Mabillon  and  that  of  Montfaucon  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  latter  dealt  with  Greek  manuscripts 
alone,  of  which  he  gave  a  list  of  11,630,  whereas  Mabillon 
had  dealt  alone  with  Latin. 

The  close  of  what  has  been  called  the  French  Period, 
though  it  shows  us  the  colossal  figure  of  Casaubon,  has  no 
one  who  can  rival  him.  Nevertheless,  a  great  cluster  of  ac- 
complished scholars  enter  into  the  annals  of  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Such,  for  example,  is  the  man  of 
letters,  Jean  Bouhier  (1673-1746),  who  cited  the  Petronian 
fragment  De  Bella  Civili,  besides  translating  it,  and  con- 
tributing to  the  PalcBographia  of  Montfaucon.  The  most 
important  consecutive  portion  of  Petronius  {i.e.  the  Cena 
Trimalchionis)  was  recovered  at  Trau  (the  Roman  Tra- 
gurium)  in  1663  by  the  Frenchman  Pierre  Petit  (Marinus 
Statilius)  and  published  by  him  at  Paris  in  1664.^    There 

1  De  Re  Diplomatica. 

^  See  Vanel,  Les  Benididins  de  Saint-Maur  (Paris,  1896). 
'  See  Introduction  to  Peck's  Cena  Trimalchionis,  2d  ed.  (New  York, 
1908). 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  315 

were  editions  of  Horace  by  P^re  Sanadon  and  others,  while 
parts  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero  were  translated  by  the 
learned  Father  de  Thoulie,  also  known  as  Olivetus,  who 
finally  edited  the  whole  of  Cicero. 

Classical  Archaeology  was  at  this  time  further  promoted 
by  Bunduri,  who  wrote  a  prodigious  work  on  the  antiqui- 
ties of  Constantinople;  by  Michel  Fourmont,  who  collected 
many  inscriptions  and  forged  many  others;  by  Burette,  who 
studied  Greek  Music;  and  by  Nicolas  Frdret,  whose  attempts 
in  Ancient  Geography  and  History  were  fairly  accurate. 
A  Frenchman  (d'Anville),  who  lived  four  decades  later  than 
Freret,  published  seventy-eight  geographical  treatises  and 
two  hundred  and  eleven  maps,  all  admirably  executed.  A 
group  of  French  scholars  collected  Greek  and  Roman 
coins  as  well  as  ancient  gems.  Among  these  collectors  were 
Charles  Patin,  J.  F.  F.  Vaillant,  J.  Pellerin,  and  P.  J. 
Mariette,  the  last  reproducing  a  large  number  of  gems  in 
his  Pierres  Gravees  (1752).  A  French  nobleman,  the 
Comte  de  Caylus,  who  had  served  in  the  army,  went  to  the 
East  in  disguise,  visited  Smyrna,  Ephesus,  and  Colophon, 
actually  traversed  and  examined  the  plain  of  Troy,  and 
then,  returning,  carefully  studied  the  monuments  of 
Constantinople.  He  was  a  man  of  great  wealth,  and  de- 
voted more  than  two-thirds  of  it  to  his  passion  for  antiqui- 
ties. His  magnificent  house  he  filled  to  overflowing  with 
works  of  ancient  art  —  not  only  Greek  and  Roman,  but 
also  Etruscan  and  Egyptian.     Whatever  was  interesting 


3l6  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

and  beautiful  he  endeavoured  to  add  to  his  collections. 
Two  sumptuous  works  of  his  are  the  seven  volumes  which 
make  up  his  Recueil  cfAntiquites,  and  the  reproduction 
by  P.  S.  Bartoli  which  he  caused  to  be  made  of  the  mural 
paintings  found  in  the  sepulchre  of  the  Nasones.^ 

The  greatest  masters  of  the  French  school  Had  ceased 
with  Montfaucon,  or  even  earlier  with  Casaubon.  Casau- 
bon's  final  years  in  England  seem  to  identify  him  with  a 
different  type  of  scholar.  In  fact,  among  his  contempora- 
ries, a  number  were  in  many  ways  different  from  the  learned 
yet  brilliant  Frenchman  whose  style  was  almost  that  of 
the  Italians  in  its  purity,  and  whose  criticism  and  comment 
were  puissant  and  profound.  The  Netherlands,  small,  but 
full  of  intellectual  life,  produced  a  cluster  of  learned  men, 
unrivalled  in  the  history  of  the  modem  world.  Of  course, 
Erasmus  had  led  the  way,  since  by  birth  he  was  a  Nether- 
lander ;  but  he  belonged  to  no  country  and  to  no  school. 
In  his  own  time  he  was  essentially  a  cosmopolitan,  at  home 
alike  in  Italy,  in  England,  in  Germany,  and  in  France. 
It  was,  as  we  have  said,  the  so-called  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion that  made  it  quite  impossible  for  another  Erasmus  to 
exist  until  several  centuries  had  passed.  Between  1540, 
however,  and  1650,  the  universities  of  Holland,^  had  bred 
or  had  called  to  their  chairs  some  of  the  most  remarkable 

'  Peintures  Antiques  (1757). 

'  The  University  of  Leyden  was  founded  in  1575 ;  that  of  Louvain 
in  1610;  and  that  of  Utrecht  in  1636. 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  317 

classicists  that  the  world  had  ever  seen.  We  may  include 
among  these  Casaubon,  though  he  studied  at  Oxford  and 
spent  his  declining  years  in  England,  and  with  him  we  must 
group  the  famous  Joest  Lips  —  better  known  as  Justus 
LipsiuSj^  and  finally  the  greatest  scholar  of  all  time,  Joseph 
Justus  Scaliger.^  These  three  men  towered  above  all  their 
contemporaries,  who  called  them  The  Triumvirate.^  The 
rather  uneventful  story  of  Casaubon  has  been  already  told. 
The  life  of  Justus  Lipsius  was  fairly  tranquil.  But  round 
Scaliger,  the  greatest  of  the  three,  there  raged  a  conflict 
of  wit  and  learning,  which  ultimately  caused  his  death, 
and  which  gives  us  an  illustration  of  how  the  division  of 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  both  of  them  extremely  militant, 
was  inimical  to  learning. 

Lipsius  was  educated  in  a  Jesuit  College,  and  had  been 
at  the  Catholic  University  of  Louvain.  This,  perhaps,  is  the 
reason  why  of  the  three  great  contemporaries,  he  alone 
died  in  the  communion  of  the  Church.  His  life  was  that 
of  a  wanderer.  He  roamed  through  Burgundy,  Germany, 
Austria,  Bohemia,  and  Italy.  Though  Pattison  speaks  of 
him  as  "  a  narrow  pedant,"  he  must  have  had  something 
of  the  personal  charm  of  Erasmus,  for  he  made  friends 
among  the  scholars  whom  he  met.  His  first  published 
work  was  a  volume  of  critical  miscellanies,  which  he  dedi- 
cated to  Cardinal    Granvella,  who  secured  for  him   an 

*  1547-1606.  2  1540-1609. 

'  See  Nisard,  Le  Triumv-irat  Litteraire  au  XVI"''  Sikcle.  (Paris,  no 
date). 


3l8  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

appointment  as  Latin  secretary  and  a  visit  to  Rome,  where 
he  remained  two  years,  studying  carefully  the  monuments 
and  inscriptions,  and  especially  examining  the  manuscripts 
in  the  Vatican.  A  second  volume  of  Varies  Lectiones 
(1575),  after  his  return  from  Rome,  showed  a  decided 
advance  in  critical  ability.  He  no  longer  leaned  on  con- 
jectural emendation,  but  preferred  to  emend  by  the  com- 
parison (collation)  of  manuscripts,  and  he  had  learned  to 
distinguish  between  what  palaeographers  call  "  good  manu- 
scripts," and  "  bad  manuscripts."  His  intercourse  with 
scholars  was  as  varied  as  that  of  Erasmus,  but  his  theologi- 
cal difficulties  were  far  greater.  Thus,  for  a  year,  he  taught 
in  the  Lutheran  University  at  Jena.  Soon  aftenvards  we 
find  him  at  Cologne,  which  was  Catholic.  Presently  he 
returned  to  Louvain,  whence  he  retired  to  Antwerp,  where 
he  received  (1579)  a  call  to  the  newly  established  Univer- 
sity of  Leyden  as  a  professor  of  history.  In  his  eleven  years 
at  Leyden  (the  Protestant  University)  he  passed  his  time  in 
classroom  drudgery,  and  yet  he  found  time  to  produce  his 
two  great  masterpieces,  —  his  edition  of  Seneca  (1605) 
and  of  Tacitus  (1574).  This  last  work  is  a  superb  monu- 
ment to  his  genius.  It  was  published  by  a  sort  of  growth, 
from  one  edition  to  another,  until  it  became  the  most  re- 
markable commentary  on  that  difficult  author.  Lipsius 
had  studied  him  so  continually  and  with  such  intensity 
that  he  could  repeat  the  whole  of  everything  that  Tacitus 
had  written;   and  if  any  one  doubted  this,  he  would  say: 


THE   PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  319 

"  Put  your  sword  to  my  throat  and  thrust  me  through  if  I 
make  a  mistake  in  a  single  word."  His  books  were  largely 
published  by  the  famous  press  of  Plantin  at  Antwerp,  and 
there  his  completed  opera  were  set  up  in  four  volumes 
(1637).  In  all,  he  prepared  forty-eight  separate  publica- 
tions, but  most  of  them  were  of  a  controversial  character, 
and  had  no  relation  to  scholarship.^  After  his  long  stay  at 
Leyden,  he  returned  to  Catholic  intimacies,  and  was  re- 
ceived, by  the  Jesuits  especially,  with  open  arms.  Courts 
and  universities  in  Italy,  Austria,  and  Spain  poured  invi- 
tations upon  him;  but  at  last  he  settled  at  Louvain,  where 
he  was  made  Professor  of  Latin  without  being  expected  to 
teach,  and  having  also  the  appointments  of  pri\y  councillor 
and  historiographer  to  the  King  of  Spain.  From  Louvain 
he  sent  out  many  clever  and  amusing  pamphlets,  writing 
them  at  the  request  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers.  He  was  indeed 
the  scholarly  champion  of  the  Catholics,  as  Scaliger  and 
Casaubon  were  the  champions  of  the  Protestants.  But 
Lipsius  had  a  genial  mind,  and  he  seldom  sought  to  wound. 
He  even  maintained  a  friendly  personal  intercourse  with 
Protestant  scholars  of  distinction,  and  with  him  great  learn- 
ing blotted  out  religious  acrimony.  He  died  at  Louvain, 
leaving  his  Greek  books  and  manuscripts  to  the  college 
there.  Lipsius  had  a  profound  knowledge  of  Roman 
antiquities,  but  a  very  slight  acquaintance  with  Greek. 

1  Besides  his  Tacitus  and  Seneca,  he  edited  Velleius  Paterculus,  and 
Valerius  Maximus. 


320  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Even  in  Latin  he  had  no  ear  for  metres,  and  very  little  true 
appreciation  of  poetical  phrasing.  Yet  no  man  ever  so 
completely  knew  the  Roman  historians,  especially  Tacitus, 
whose  pages  he  had  begun  to  read  as  a  boy,  and  whom  he 
kept  studying  and  revising  until  the  very  last  year  of  his 
life/ 

Great,  however,  as  Lipsius  was,  there  towers  above  him 
in  the  history  of  learning  the  wonderful  figure  of  Joseph 
Justus  Scaliger,^  a  contemporary  of  Lipsius,  and  described 
by  Pattison  as  "  the  most  richly  stored  intellect  which  ever 
spent  itself  in  acquiring  knowledge."  Scaliger  was  bom  of 
a  father  so  remarkable  as  to  make  it  surprising  that  even 
his  son  could  surpass  him.  This  was  Julius  Caesar  Scali- 
ger.3  An  eminent  scholar  has  said  that  none  of  the  ancients 
could  be  ranked  above  him,  while  the  age  in  which  he  lived 
could  not  show  his  equal.  He  claimed  to  be  one  of  the 
illustrious  Italian  house  of  La  Scala,  and  to  have  been  bom 
at  their  princely  castle  on  the  Lago  de  Garda.  At  twelve 
he  was  presented  to  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  and  became 
one  of  his  pages,  frequently  showing  himself  a  miracle  of 
personal  bravery.  He  was  also  given  to  arts  and  letters, 
studying  under  Albrecht  Durer.     In  15 12  he  fought  at  the 

^  The  only  complete  life  of  Lipsius  was  written  by  Le  Mire  (Antwerp, 
1607).  See,  however,  Reiffenberg,  De  Justi  Lipsi  Vita  et  Scriptis  Cofn- 
mentarius  (Brussels,  1823),  and  the  pages  referring  to  him  in  L.  Miiller's 
Geschichte  der  Klassichen  Philologie  in  den  Niederlanden  (Leipzig,  1869), 
a  work  which  is  commended  to  students  of  the  Dutch-English  period. 

*  1540-1609.  '  1484-1588. 


/ 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  3  21 

battle  of  Ravenna,  where  his  father  and  elder  brother  were 
slain  beside  him;  but  there  he  performed  such  incredible 
deeds  of  valour  that  the  Emperor  conferred  upon  him  per- 
sonally the  highest  tokens  of  chivalry,  —  the  spurs,  the 
collar,  and  the  golden  eagle.  Receiving  no  more  sub- 
stantial rewards,  he  left  the  military  service  and  became 
a  student  at  the  University  of  Bologna.  There  and  else- 
where he  studied  as  vigorously  as  he  had  fought,  dividing 
his  time  between  medicine,  natural  history,  and  the  classics. 
This  autobiographical  account  would  be  of  compara- 
tively little  interest  had  not  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  it 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  later  life  of  his  illustrious 
son,  and,  in  fact,  plunged  him  from  the  heights  of  glorious 
distinction  to  the  depths  of  humiliation.  As  to  the  elder 
Scaliger,  however,  he  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  unusual 
powers,  whether  he  were  descended  from  the  family  of  La 
Scala  (Fr.  de  I'Escale),  or  whether,  as  his  enemies  in  after 
years  declared,  he  was  the  son  of  an  obscure  teacher  at 
Verona.  This  much  may  be  said :  during  his  life-time  no 
one  questioned  his  noble  ancestry,  while  many  undoubted 
facts  verify  his  narrative.  Certain  it  is  that  he  was  a  brill- 
iant classicist  and  spent  the  last  thirty-two  years  of  his  life 
in  such  a  way  that  on  his  death  (1558)  no  scholar's  repu- 
tation equalled  his.  He  was  essentially  one  of  the  French 
school  with  an  Italian  colouring,  and  the  last  part  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  France  at  Agen,  where  he  fell  violently 
in  love  with  a  beautiful  young  orphan  of  thirteen.  Her 
y 


322  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

friends  objected  to  her  marriage  with  a  person  whom  they 
called  a  mere  adventurer;  but  he  attacked  her  with  as  much 
success  as  he  had  stormed  fortresses,  and  finally  married 
her  when  she  was  sixteen.  The  marriage  proved  to  be  a 
very  happy  one;  and  it  endured  until  his  death,  twenty- 
nine  years  later,  signalised  in  those  years  by  the  birth  of 
fifteen  children.  In  1531,  this  J.  C.  Scaliger  published  an 
oration  against  Erasmus  in  answer  to  that  great  scholar's 
Ciceronianus.  It  was  astonishing  in  its  vigour  and  com- 
mand of  every  shade  of  Latin,  ranging  from  brilliant  rheto- 
ric to  foul  abuse.  Erasmus,  however,  treated  it  with  silent 
contempt,  which  caused  Scaliger  to  write  another  oration 
of  the  same  sort,  and  a  number  of  Latin  verses,  which  were 
still  less  successful.  From  his  pen  came  also  a  treatise 
on  comic  metres,  and  the  first  known  scientific  Latin 
grammar.  After  his  death  there  appeared  his  Poetica,  — 
filled  with  many  paradoxes  and  boasts  that  nevertheless 
were  mingled  with  much  acute  criticism.^ 

Modem  writers  who  estimate  his  genius  regard  him 
rather  as  a  philosopher  and  man  of  science  than  as  a  student 
of  the  classics.  His  early  training  as  a  physician  made  him 
care  more  for  physics  than  for  literature.  Hence  his 
writings  of  enduring  worth  are  monographs  on  many 
subjects  relating  to  the  physical  sciences.  Although 
Daude  speaks  of  his  intellect  as  "  teeming  with  heroic 
thought,"  he  was  not  an  investigator  nor  one  who  arrived 

'  See  Spingam,  op.  cit.,  pp.  150-152,  176. 


THE    PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  323 

at  new  truths.  He  clung  to  Aristotle  and  to  Galen,  and 
rejected  with  arrogance  the  theories  of  Copernicus. 
Nevertheless,  his  philosophical  Exercitationes  on  Cardan 
(1557)  passed  through  many  editions,  and  was  a  popu- 
lar text-book  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Even  in  our  own  times,  men  like  Leibnitz  and 
Sir  William  Hamilton  have  called  the  elder  Scaliger  the 
best  modern  exponent  of  the  physics  and  metaphysics 
of  Aristotle.* 

His  gifted  son,  Joseph  Justus  Scaliger,^  has  come  to  be 
recognised  as  the  greatest  scholar  of  the  modern  world. 
He  was  the  tenth  child  of  the  elder  Scaliger;  and  it  was 
fortunate  that  an  outbreak  of  the  plague  compelled  him 
to  remain  at  home  for  a  few  years,  and  to  become  his 
father's  continual  companion.  This  companionship  was 
worth  far  more  to  him  than  instruction  in  any  school. 
Association  with  a  man  of  the  world  and  an  acute  observer 
made  young  Scaliger  much  more  than  a  mere  scholar. 
It  gave  to  his  mind  the  breadth  and  also  the  accuracy, 
both  of  which  a  true  scholar  should  possess.  It  was  the 
chief  pleasure  of  the  elder  Scaliger  in  his  later  years  to 
write  Latin  verse;  and  daily  he  dictated  to  his  son  from 
eighty  to  more  than  a  hundred  lines.  The  boy  was  also 
compelled  each  day  to  write  a  Latin  theme  or  declamation. 
Thus,  when  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  after  the 

^  See  Magen,  Documents  sur  J.  C.  Scaliger  et  sa  Famille  (Paris  1880). 
*  1540-1609. 


324  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHLLOLOGY 

death  of  his  father,  he  went  to  Paris,  and  spent  four  years 
at  the  University.  His  scholastic  life  there  was  very  inter- 
esting. Hitherto  he  had  known  only  Latin  and  had  given 
no  study  to  Greek.  But  at  this  time  the  French  schools 
and  universities  were  throbbing  with  the  early  glow  of 
Hellenism,^  and  the  great  French  scholars  were  almost 
entirely  bent  on  Hellenic  studies. 

This  was  a  surprise  to  Scaliger.  He  had  devoted  his 
early  youth  to  Latin;  and  now,  of  a  sudden,  he  was  made 
to  feel  that  ignorance  of  Greek  was  ignorance  of  every- 
thing. Therefore,  he  enrolled  himself  under  the  cele- 
brated Grecian,  Tumebus  (Tumebe),  and  attended  his 
lectures  for  several  months.  But  presently  he  found  out 
that  he  could  learn  but  little  Greek  in  this  way.  He  could 
not  rush  into  the  lecture-room  of  a  great  scholar  and  under- 
stand the  lectures  that  were  given  there.  He  must  him- 
self do  much  preliminary  work.  Therefore,  he  shut 
himself  up  in  his  rooms,  and  resolved  on  teaching  himself. 
He  read  all  Homer  in  twenty-one  days  (presumably  both 
the  Iliad  and  Odyssey)  and  then  devoured  all  the  other 
Greek  poets,  orators,  and  historians.  As  he  proceeded, 
he  formed  a  grammar  for  himself,  noting  the  paradigms, 
and  reducing  the  words  to  their  proper  order.  He  seemed 
to  find  this  easy.  Before  listening  to  Tumebus  again, 
he  essayed  to  teach  himself  both  Arabic  and  Hebrew,  and 
acquired  a  very  fair  knowledge  of  both,  though  nothing 

*  Egger,  op.  cit.,  passim. 


THE    PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  325 

like  a  critical  mastery.  There  was  another  teacher  of 
Greek,  named  Dorat/  who  had  the  official  title  of  "  Poet 
Royal."  He  certainly  justified  this  title,  in  a  way,  for  he 
published  more  than  50,000  Greek  and  Latin  verses,  of 
which  15,000  are  preserved.  He  had  no  great  profundit)' 
as  a  scholar,  yet  he  was  most  admirable  as  a  teacher; 
while  Tumebus  could  only  lecture  and  not  teach.  The 
name  of  Doratus  stood  very  high,  and  he  was  fortunate 
in  his  pupils,  among  whom  was  Scaliger  and  also  Ronsard. 
The  gratitude  of  those  who  studied  under  him  poured  itself 
out  in  their  ascription  to  him  of  a  high  quality  of  scholar- 
ship. Even  Scaliger  who  could  commend  him  only  mildly 
for  his  poetry,  speaks  with  enthusiasm  when  he  styles 
him  GrcECCB  linguce  peritissimus.  The  influence  of 
Doratus  is  seen  in  the  Greek  spirit  of  Ronsard,  found  in 
those  poems  of  his  which  recall  the  loftiness  of  ^Eschylus.^ 
In  ^schylus,  the  studies  of  Doratus  were  very  fruitful,  since 
he  combined  learning  and  taste,  so  that  Hermann,  in  after 
years,  preferred  him  to  any  other  critics  of  the  great  tragic 
writer. 

Upon  the  recommendation  of  Doratus,  Scaliger  became 
a  sort  of  travelling  companion  and  tutor  to  a  young  lord 
of  La  Roche  Pozay,  named  Louis  de  Chastaigner.  The 
two  young  men  were  very  sympathetic  and  set  out  upon  a 

'  Jean  d'Aurat.  His  pupils  named  him  by  the  Latinised  form,  Do- 
ratus. 

2  See  Chalandon,  Essai  sur  Ronsard  (Paris,  1875) ;  and  Fieri, 
Pitrarque  et  Ronsard  (Marseilles,  1895). 


326  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

course  of  travel  which  was  chronicled  by  Scaliger  and  is 
extremely  interesting.  At  Rome  they  found  the  rather 
shifty  but  intensely  clever  Muretus,  of  whom  Scaliger  said 
with  something  of  a  sigh:  "  There  are  not  many  Mure- 
tuses  in  the  world.  If  he  only  believed  in  the  existence 
of  God,  as  well  as  he  can  talk  about  it,  he  would  be  an 
excellent  Christian."  After  traversing  Italy  they  went 
north  to  England  and  Scotland,  one  of  Scaliger's  letters 
being  dated  at  Edinburgh.  Scaliger  cared  little  for  the 
English.  He  despised  their  "  inhuman  disposition  "  and 
the  narrowness  which  made  them  inhospitable  to  foreigners. 
It  disappointed  him  also  to  find  only  a  few  Greek  manu- 
scripts in  England,  and  only  a  few  scholars  of  the  type 
with  which  he  was  so  familiar  on  the  Continent.  Never- 
theless, he  was  a  Protestant,  and  for  that  reason  his  life  for 
many  years  had  been  often  trying.  One  pleasant  resting- 
place  he  found  at  Valence,  where  lived  the  most  profound 
jurist  of  the  age,  Cujacius  (Jacques  de  Cujas).^  This 
wise  and  temperate  scholar  had  a  remarkable  collection 
of  manuscripts  on  the  Roman  law,  numbering  more  than 
five  hundred;  and  here  he  lived  and  studied  with  tran- 
quillity, reconstructing  the  Roman  jurists  in  a  purely  classic 
fashion,  without  any  touch  of  mediaevalism.  For  three 
years,  Scaliger  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Cujacius  with 
free  access  to  his  fine  library  for  four  years. 

Then  the  so-called  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  led 
^  See  Spangenberg,  Cujacius  und  seine  Zeitgenossen  (Leipzig,  1882). 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  327 

him  to  take  refuge  in  Geneva,  where  he  was  received  with 
high  honour  and  appointed  to  be  professor  in  the  Academy. 
He  lectured  on  both  Greek  and  Latin  authors,  and  gave 
great  satisfaction  to  the  students.  But  he  himself  hated 
lecturing  and  found  the  fanatical  preachers  of  Protestant- 
ism as  distasteful  as  the  more  subtle  zealotes.  Hence  he 
returned  to  France  (1574)  and  lived  for  the  next  twenty 
years  in  the  various  castles  of  his  friend,  La  Roche  Pozay. 
Much  of  his  life  was  far  different  from  that  of  a  tranquil 
scholar.  The  Huguenots  and  the  Leaguers  with  their 
outbreaks  of  violence  often  compelled  Scaliger  to  move 
from  one  chateau  to  another,  going  on  guard  duty,  taking 
part  in  military  expeditions  in  the  night-time,  and  wielding 
pike  and  dagger  like  any  other  freebooter.^  He  had, 
however,  for  at  least  half  the  time,  a  chance  to  give  himself 
up  to  study  and  composition;  and  his  editions  of  the 
Catalecta  (1574),  of  Festus  (1576)  of  Catullus,  Tibullus, 
and  Propertius  (1577)  are  remarkable  examples  of  true 
criticism,  disdaining  the  prevalent  happy-go-lucky  guess- 
work for  a  fixed  and  ordered  system  of  scientific  scholar- 
ship. 

In  1590,  the  great  Lipsius  retired  from  Leyden,  where 
for  twelve  years  he  had  been  professor  of  Roman  History 
and  Antiquities.     Leyden  was  then  the  fortress  of  Protes- 

^  Our  knowledge  of  Scaliger's  life  at  this  time  is  derived  from  a  num- 
ber of  letters  in  Lettres  Franqaises  Inedites  de  Joseph  Scaliger,  discovered 
at  Agen  by  M.  de  Larroque,  and  published  there  by  him  in  1881. 


328  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

tant  learning,  as  Paris  was  the  fortress  of  Catholic  scholar- 
ship. And  so,  when  Leyden  saw  its  most  famous  scholar 
retire,  it  sought  out  Scaliger  as  his  successor.  In  this,  the 
University  and  also  the  States-General  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange  gave  their  aid,  and  the  Prince  wrote  a  personal 
letter  both  to  Henry  IV  of  France  and  to  Scaliger  himself, 
asking  that  the  latter  might  accept  a  chair  in  the  Univer- 
sity. Scaliger  had  hoped  that  Henry  IV  would,  when 
successful,  give  freedom  of  speech  and  thought  to  Protes- 
tants. Moreover,  Scaliger  hated  to  lecture,  and  much 
preferred  the  quiet  of  his  study,  and  the  learned  inter- 
course of  distinguished  men.  The  drudgery  of  the  Uni- 
versity made  no  appeal  to  him;  the  spirit  of  learning  was 
all  in  all.  Consequently  he  refused ;  but  when  the  invita- 
tion was  renewed  in  the  most  flattering  manner  at  the  end 
of  another  year,  he  felt  that  he  would  do  wrong  to  remain 
in  France,  subject  to  the  sneers  and  hidden  innuendoes  of 
the  once  Huguenot  King.  This  second  call  from  Leyden 
was  accepted  by  Scaliger,  and  he  was  welcomed  there 
with  honours  such  as  are  given  not  only  to  princes  of 
learning,  but,  likewise,  to  men  of  princely  blood,  as  Scaliger 
believed  himself  to  be.  He  dined  at  the  table  of  Prince 
Maurice.  The  burghers  at  Leyden  deemed  his  presence 
among  them  a  glory  to  the  town,  and  even  the  children 
louted  low  before  him,  when  he  took  his  walks  abroad. 
Very  different,  indeed,  was  his  lot  as  compared  with  that 
of  poor  Casaubon  in  England,  who  was  hustled  by  British 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  329 

boors  and  his  windows  broken  by  the  rabble  in  the  street. 
Scahger  was  in  reality  a  prince  of  learning,  and  perhaps 
he  should  have  been  quite  content  with  this.  That  he 
deemed  himself  the  scion  of  a  princely  Italian  family  was 
not  his  fault,  and  to  this  day  no  one  is  certain  of  the  facts. 
Yet  this  conviction  which  he  inherited  from  his  father, 
and  which  had  never  been  questioned  in  his  father's  life- 
time, was  fated  to  destroy  his  happiness,  and  end  his  won- 
derful labours.  The  story  is  worth  relating  in  some  detail, 
because  it  illustrates  the  evil  effects  of  the  religious  feuds 
which  had  broken  out  with  the  so-called  Protestant  Refor- 
mation.^ 

As  was  said  before,  the  services  of  distinguished  scholars 
were  employed  alike  by  the  Old  Church  and  the  New  in 
the  way  of  theological  sharp-shooting.  Thus  we  have 
seen  that  Casaubon  died  while  completing  his  attack 
upon  Cardinal  Baronius.  He  had  himself  been  made 
the  victim  of  a  stream  of  vile  abuse  from  a  Cretan 
Catholic  (Eudamon-Ioannes)  who  attacked  him  in  a 
pamphlet. 

Yet  a  much  more  skilful  shaft  was  launched  against 
him  by  one  Caspar  Scioppius  (Caspar  Schoppe).  This 
man,  who  flitted  back  and  forth  betAA^een  Madrid  and 
Ingolstadt,  was  a  really  remarkable  figure.  He  had  been 
disappointed  in  many  of  his  hopes,  and  he  became  a  savage, 

*  See  Pattison,  Isaac  Casaubon,  pp.  389-400  (Oxford,  1892) ;  and  id. 
Essays,  ed.  by  Nettleship,  i.  pp.  132-192  (Oxford,  1889). 


330  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

venomous  creature  ready  to  attack  any  one  whom  his 
Catholic  masters  pointed  out  to  him.  UnHke  many  of 
the  literary  bravos  of  the  time,  he  was  an  accomplished 
Latinist,  and  was  almost  monstrous  in  his  shameless  in- 
genuity and  audacious  use  of  fiction.  He  had  already 
scourged  King  James  of  England  in  two  pamphlets. 
"  Now,"  said  he,  "  I  am  going  to  flay  the  King  of  Eng- 
land's dog."  This  he  did  in  his  Holofernes.  It  was  an 
atrocious  libel  from  beginning  to  end;  yet  it  was  piquant, 
and  when  decent,  it  was  witty.  But  when  he  went  on  to 
charge  Casaubon  with  every  sort  of  unnatural  crime  and 
to  support  the  charges  by  imaginary  stories  that  had  no 
basis,  his  fierce  assault  was  neither  plausible  nor  probable. 
Casaubon  was  too  austere  and  virtuous  a  man  for  such 
insults  to  have  any  effect  whatever. 

Thus,  only  to  a  certain  extent,  the  virulent  libel  against 
Casaubon  did  slight  harm.  Nor  was  Casaubon,  although 
he  was  one  of  the  Triumvirate,  so  conspicuous  a  figure  as 
Scaliger,  who  remained  at  the  very  pinnacle  of  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  century  scholarship.  Unfortunately,  his 
enemies  found  a  flaw  in  his  otherwise  impenetrable  armour. 
In  1594,  he  published  a  sort  of  glorification  of  his  family, 
Epistola  de  Vetustate  et  Splendore  Gentis  ScaligercB  et 
J.  C.  Scaligeri  Vita.  This  was  really  an  exhibition  of 
filial  love,  though  there  runs  through  it  a  vein  of  proud, 
and,  one  might  even  say,  of  noble  self-appreciation.  But 
it  showed,  nevertheless,  a  weak  point  in  his  nature,  and 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  33 1 

one  which  his  enemies  at  Ingolstadt  assailed  ahke  with 
every  means  that  could  wound  so  proud  a  spirit.  Again 
and  again  he  had  been  attacked ;  but  he  cared  nothing  for 
coarse  and  violent  scribblers.  In  1607,  however,  there 
entered  the  arena  a  foeman,  vastly  inferior  to  Scaliger  in 
learning,  but  the  peer  of  any  one  in  wit,  in  all  the  artifices 
of  debate,  with  a  marvellous  command  of  style,  and  wield- 
ing all  the  powers  of  sarcasm,  in  which  he  had  no  rival. 
Mark  Pattison  says:  "  Every  piece  of  gossip  or  scandal 
which  could  be  raked  together  respecting  Scaliger  or  his 
family  "  was  put  at  the  disposal  of  Scioppius.  With  these 
gifts  and  with  this  material,  Scioppius  said,  "  I  shall  kill 
Scaliger!"  and  soon  after  launched  a  volume  of  some 
four  hundred  pages  written  with  consummate  ability  so 
that  "  no  stronger  proof  can  be  given  of  the  impression 
produced  by  this  powerful  philippic,  dedicated  to  the 
defamation  of  an  individual,  than  that  it  has  been  the 
source  from  which  the  biography  of  Scaliger  as  it  now 
stands  in  our  biographical  collections  has  mainly  flowed." 
The  book  was  called  Scaliger  HypolimcBus  ("  The  Sup- 
posititious Scaliger"),  and  it  simply  crushed  the  haughty 
Triimivir,  as  well  it  might.  For  he  had  always  believed  in 
good  faith  that  he  was  a  prince  of  Verona,  and  he  had 
written  a  great  many  things  which  he  had  heard  from  his 
father,  and  which  he  believed  to  be  true.  But  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  whether  or  not  Julius  Caesar  Scaliger  was  de- 
scended from  a  princely  family  he  was  certainly  a  good 


332  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

deal  of  a  romancer,  and  it  was  not  difficult  for  so  malicious 
and  so  clever  an  antagonist  as  Scioppius  to  show  the 
blunders  and  errors  of  fact  which  had  crept  into  the  younger 
Scaliger's  E  pis  tola.  Around  these  errors  and  around 
other  statements  which  were  claimed  to  be  erroneous, 
Scioppius  danced  and  jeered  with  outrageous  glee.  As 
soon  as  Scaliger  could  rally  from  the  unexpected  attack, 
he  wrote  a  reply  to  Scioppius  which  he  called  Confutatio 
FabulcB  Burdonum.  This  title  refers  to  Benedetto 
Bordone,  a  person  of  humble  birth  and  said  by  Scioppius 
to  be  the  real  father  of  the  elder  Scaliger.  This  would 
have  made  both  Scaligers  little  less  than  impostors,  and, 
therefore,  in  the  reply  the  falsity  of  the  charge  was  attacked, 
though  with  moderation  and  good  taste.  The  Confutatio, 
however,  does  not  bring  forw^ard  a  single  convincing  proof 
either  of  his  father's  descent  from  the  family  of  La  Scala, 
or  of  any  event  narrated  by  Julius  as  having  happened 
to  himself  or  to  any  of  his  family  before  he  arrived  at  Agen 
in  France.  The  success  of  Scioppius  was  remarkable. 
The  product  of  his  almost  devilish  ingenuity  was  read  all 
over  Europe,  and  it  was  generally  believed  even  by  many 
who  had  passed  for  friends.  Scaliger  was  too  great,  too 
learned,  too  much  of  a  real  prince  in  intellect  and  bearing, 
for  these  petty,  jealous  creatures  to  be  otherwise  than 
pleased  at  his  overthrow.  The  name  of  the  greatest  man 
in  Europe  now  evoked  merely  a  grin,  or  a  coarse  joke. 
His  verynamewas  used  as  a  synonym  for  a  pedant  (pedant), 


THE   PERIOD    or   NATIONALISM  333 

while  in  French  Hterature,   especially,  his  memory  has 
been  covered  with  unworthy  ridicule.^ 

So  much  for  the  chief  incidents  of  his  life  and  death. 
One  recounts  them  because  they  are  characteristic  of  the 
time  in  which  he  lived,  and  of  the  continual  warfare  be- 
tv^^een  literary  rufhans  and  their  betters.  We  must  now 
return  to  an  account  of  the  great  achievements  which 
placed  Scaliger  at  the  very  head  of  all  men  of  letters  and 
learning,  from  Varro  to  Mommsen.  Having  shown  by 
his  edited  works,  already  mentioned,^  that  he  could  criti- 
cise and  amend  according  to  a  scientific  system,  he  now 
moved  on  to  a  higher  field  than  that  of  scholarship  alone. 

"It  was  reserved  for  his  edition  of  Manilius  (1579),  and  his  De 
Emendatione  Temporum  (1583),  to  revolutionize  all  the  received 
ideas  of  the  chronology  of  ancient  history,  —  to  show  for  the  first 
time  that  ancient  chronology  was  of  the  highest  importance  as  a 
corrector  as  well  as  a  supplement   to  historical  narrative,   that 

*  The  most  adequate  biography  of  Joseph  Scaliger  is  that  of  Jacob 
Bemays  (Berlin,  1865).  See  also  the  essay  by  Mark  Pattison  in  his 
book  of  essays,  already  mentioned.  For  the  life  of  the  elder  Scaliger, 
the  letters  edited  by  his  son,  those  afterwards  published  in  1620,  and  his 
own  writings,  are  the  principal  authorities.  See  also  Laffore's  Etude  siir 
Jules  Cesar  de  Lescale  (Agen,  i860)  and  Magen's  Documents  sur  Julius 
CcBsar  Scaliger  et  sa  Famille  (Agen,  1873).  The  two  books  by  Ch. 
Nisard  —  Les  Gladiateurs  de  la  Republique  des  Lettres  (Paris,  1 889) ,  and 
Le  Triumvirat  Litleraire  au  Seizieme  Siecle  (Paris)  —  are  written  with 
levity.  The  second  of  the  two  is  little  more  than  a  digest  of  the  volume 
by  Scioppius  ;  yet  perhaps  this  makes  it  worth  the  reader's  while.  There 
is  an  excellent  account  of  the  two  Scaligers  by  Sir  R.  C.  Jebb  in  the 
Encyclopcedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  vol.  xx,  pp.  361-365  (New  York,  1886). 

*  Supra,  pp.  334-340. 


334  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

ancient  history  is  not  confined  to  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
but  also  comprises  that  of  the  Persians,  the  Babylonians,  and  the 
Egyptians,  hitherto  neglected  as  absolutely  worthless,  and  that  of 
the  Jews,  hitherto  treated  as  a  thing  apart  and  too  sacred  to  be 
mixed  up  with  the  others,  and  that  the  historical  narratives  and  frag- 
ments of  each  of  these,  and  their  several  systems  of  chronology,  must 
be  carefully  and  critically  compared  together,  if  any  true  and  general 
conclusions  on  ancient  history  are  to  be  arrived  at.  It  is  this  which 
constitutes  his  true  glory,  and  which  places  Scaliger  on  so  immensely 
higher  an  eminence  than  any  of  his  contemporaries.  Yet,  while 
the  scholars  of  his  time  admitted  his  pre-eminence,  neither  they 
nor  those  who  immediately  followed  seem  to  have  appreciated  his 
real  merit,  but  to  have  considered  his  emendatory  criticism,  and 
his  skill  in  Greek,  as  constituting  his  claim  to  special  greatness. 
'Scaliger's  great  works  in  historical  criticism  had  overstepped  any 
power  of  appreciation  which  the  succeeding  age  possessed  '  (Patti- 
son).  His  commentary  on  Manilius'  is  really  a  treatise  on  the  as- 
tronomy of  the  ancients,  and  it  forms  an  introduction  to  the  De 
Enicndatione  Temporum,  in  which  he  examines  by  the  light  of 
modern  and  Copernican  science  the  ancient  system  as  applied  to 
epochs,  calendars,  and  computations  of  time,  showing  upon  what 
principles  they  were  based." 

His  Manilius,  while  it  represented  a  new  field  of  labour, 
had  puzzled  and  frightened  away  the  smaller  critics  as 
being  the  most  difficult  of  all  the  Latin  classics.  But  this 
work,  with  him,  merely  served  as  an  introduction  to  a 
comprehensive  chronological  system  to  which  he  gave  the 

1  The  author  of  a  Latin  poem  upon  astronomy  written  in  five  books 
between  9  a.d.  and  15  A. d.  A  proposed  sixth  book  was  never  written. 
The  first  satisfactory  text  was  that  of  J.  J.  Scaliger  (1579)-  Late 
editions  are  by  Bentley  (London,  1739),  and  Jacob  (Berlin,  1846).  See 
Kramer,  De  Manilii  Asironomicis  (Marburg,  1890). 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  335 

name  De  Emendatione  Temporum}  In  this  latter  effort 
of  a  great  genius  Scaliger  created  a  science  of  Chronology. 
Heretofore,  historians  had  merely  arranged  past  facts  in 
a  tabular  series  to  help  the  memory.  On  the  one  hand, 
the  philologists  know  nothing  of  the  mathematical  prin- 
ciples upon  which  the  calculation  of  period  rests.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  astronomers  had  not  attempted  to  apply 
their  principles  to  the  records  of  ancient  time.  It  was 
Scaliger  who  now,  with  a  new  light  which  Copernicus  and 
Tycho  Brahe  gave  him,  turned  back  to  the  ancient 
epochs  and  systems  and  made  it  plain  on  what  principles 
they  had  been  formed.  He  instituted  an  acute  comparison 
between  the  Greek  and  Persian  methods  of  reckoning 
time;  he  studied  even  the  Hebrew  calendar,  and  then  in 
ascending  to  primitive  ages,  he  saw  how  chronology  may 
become  an  instrument  of  discovery  for  times  when  written 
records  do  not  exist.  This  suggestion  is  only  a  hint  in  the 
first  edition  of  the  De  Emcndaliofie.  It  proved  fruitful 
to  him  until  he  grasped  the  daring  idea  of  compiling  a 
book  which  should  embrace  the  records  of  the  prehistoric 
past.  Scaliger  was  the  first  to  see  that  the  history  of  the 
ancient  world,  if  it  could  be  known  at  all,  could  be  known 
only  as  an  entity;  and  that  the  facts  of  this  remote  period 
could  be  had  only  in  the  remains  of  those  chronologers 
who,  in  copying  statements  which  they  often  failed  to 

1  The  first  edition  published  in  1583,  followed  by  many  other  and 
fuller  editions. 


33^  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

understand  themselves,  did  transmit  in  this  way  to  future 
ages  the  universal  tradition  of  the  human  species.  The 
distorted  fragments  of  Berosus,  Menander,  Manetho,  and 
Abydenus  were  first  to  be  collected.  Finally,  he  adopted 
as  a  basis  of  primitive  tradition,  St.  Jerome's  Latin  trans- 
lation of  the  so-called  Eusebian  Chronicle. 

It  is  necessary  to  explain  in  a  few  words  what  this 
Eusebian  Chronicle  was  which  gave  the  study  of  it  so  much 
importance.  Eusebius  was  an  Asiatic  Greek,  a  friend  of 
the  Emperor  Constantine,  and  bom  in  Palestine  in  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  a.d.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  scholars  of  the  time  and  the  most  widely  read. 
A  list  of  his  books  would  be  unnecessary  here,  but  all  his 
studies  were  of  a  nature  which  intended  toward  the  dis- 
covery of  religious  truth.  He  was  familiar  with  a  great 
variety  of  Greek  authors,  philosophers,  historians,  theolo- 
gians, who  lived  in  Egypt  or  Phoenicia  or  Asia  and 
Europe.  More  than  anything  else  he  cultivated  a  study 
of  chronology  with  a  view  to  establishing  on  a  solid  basis 
the  historical  value  of  the  Old  Testament.  This  was 
practically  a  universal  history  {UavToSaTrr]  'la-Topia) 
divided  into  two  books.  The  first  book  discussed  the 
origin  and  the  history  of  all  nations  from  the  creation 
of  the  world  down  to  the  year  325  a.d.  Here  Eusebius 
uses  copious  extracts  from  historians  whose  works  are  now 
lost.  The  second  part,  entitled  "  The  Chronicle  Canon" 
(KpoviKof:    Kava)v),  consisted  of  parallel  tables  given  by 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  337 

periods  of  ten  years  each,  containing  the  names  of  the 
sovereigns  and  the  principal  events  which  had  taken  place 
from  the  call  of  Abraham  (2017  B.C.)-  He  had  drawn 
largely  upon  the  chronography  of  Sextus  lulius  Africanus, 
completing  the  whole  by  the  aid  of  Manetho,  losephus,  and 
other  historians.  This  was  the  famous  chronicle  which 
he  continued  down  to  his  own  time.  The  book  was  widely 
read  and  was  accepted  as  necessarily  accurate.  In  course 
of  time,  after  the  death  of  Eusebius,  St.  Jerome  trans- 
lated the  Chronicle  into  Latin,  continuing  it  to  378  a.d. 
For  some  centuries,  the  Christian  scribes  preserved  it  as 
an  essential  part  of  the  works  of  St.  Jerome,  although  they 
had  no  idea  of  its  unusual  value.  When  the  Renaissance 
was  well  under  way,  neither  the  men  of  elegant  letters, 
nor  the  Protestant  controversialists,  knew  what  to  make 
of  it,  and  at  last  it  was  omitted  from  their  editions  of  St. 
Jerome's  works  as  being  without  value.  Even  the  great 
Erasmus,  though  he  edited  the  other  writings  of  Jerome, 
did  not  think  it  worth  his  while  to  include  this  Chronicle, 
and  in  fact,  it  was  not  replaced  in  the  series  of  his  works 
until  1734.^ 

It  was  left  for  Scaliger  to  appreciate  the  inestimable 
value  of  this  document,  which  contains  all  that  we  know 
of  a  great  deal  of  pre-classical  history,  carrying  us  back 
to  the  oriental  countries  as  well  as  to  Greece  and  Rome. 

1  This  was  a  handsomely  printed  edition  published  at  Verona,   but 
very  uncritically  edited. 
z 


338  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

To  edit  and  explain  so  complicated  a  work  as  this  was  a 
task  fit  for  an  intellectual  giant  like  Scaliger.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  Chronicle  was  tempting  to  one  whose  tastes 
were  annalistic;  while  the  form  in  which  it  had  come 
down  was  peculiarly  attractive  to  a  mind  like  Scaliger's. 
A  careful  examination  of  it  led  him  to  doubt  whether  this 
was,  in  fact,  an  original  document  composed  by  St.  Jerome, 
or  whether  it  was  the  Latin  version  of  a  Greek  original 
which  had  perished.  The  next  point  which  he  considered 
was  this:  Since  we  have  not  the  Greek  original,  is  the 
Latin  translation  a  faithful  version  of  what  Eusebius  set 
down?  In  the  first  place,  all  translators  are  liable  to 
various  defects,  and  in  the  Chronicle  there  was  a  greater 
chance  of  error  because  the  work  was  written  with  such 
speed.  St.  Jerome  himself  calls  it  tumuUuariimi  opus  and 
asks  for  lenity  from  his  readers.  Again  Jerome  did  not 
write  the  book,  but  merely  used  it  to  supply  the  Latin 
world  with  a  manual  of  general  history.  He  omitted 
and  inserted  whenever  he  thought  the  book  would  be 
improved,  and  tried  to  communicate  the  elements  of  uni- 
versal history  in  countries  where  barbarous  hordes  were 
overrunning  the  civilisation  of  Christianity,  Further- 
more, the  manuscripts  were  peculiarly  corrupt,  as  was 
natural  in  a  book  so  full  of  dates. 

Pondering  over  these  facts,  Scaliger  came  to  believe  that 
the  original  Chronicle  as  written  by  Eusebius  had  con- 
sisted of  two  books;   and  that  the  first  of  these  books  had 


THE   PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  339 

been  lost  in  the  Dark  Ages.  The  second  book  had  been 
preserved  for  its  utiHty  as  an  epitome  of  ancient  history, 
while  the  first  book  as  consisting  of  extracts  from  the 
Greek  historians,  for  modems  was  the  lost  book  that  was 
the  most  valuable.  It  would  daunt  the  boldest  text- 
critic  of  modern  times  to  arrive  at  these  conclusions  from 
the  slight  indications  which  Scaliger  had  at  hand.  Even 
more  reckless  did  it  seem  for  him  to  reproduce  a  second 
book  of  the  Chronicle  of  which  he  had  only  St.  Jerome's 
Latin,  in  its  original  language.  But  finally  Scaliger's 
almost  miraculous  mind  attempted  to  recover  the  first 
book  both  in  its  substance  and  language.  No  such  re- 
markable attempt  had  ever  before  or  has  ever  since  been 
known  in  the  annals  of  criticism.  What  Scaliger  relied 
upon  was  his  skill  in  imitative  translation,  and  his  mastery 
of  the  whole  remains  of  Greek  literature.  How  ingenious 
was  he  in  detecting  the  smallest  scrap  of  Eusebius  may 
be  shown  by  one  slight  incident.  A  few  fragments  of 
the  original  Chronicle  had  been  recovered  and  fitted  into 
their  places  by  the  skill  of  Scaliger;  but  these  would  have 
been  of  little  use.  In  1601  he  came  upon  the  vestiges  of 
a  manuscript  chronicle  by  a  Greek  priest  which  possibly 
contained  Eusebian  fragments,  and  which  by  deduction  was 
likely  to  be  found  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris.  It  turned 
out  that  the  manuscript  was  found  there.  Scaliger  at 
Leyden  in  an  agony  of  mingled  anxiety  and  exultation, 
wrote  letter  after  letter,  and  after  a  year's  siege  secured 


340  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  manuscript  over  which  he  gloated,  and  presently  de- 
clared that  this  single  writer  was  more  to  his  purpose  than 
all  the  other  Greek  writers  combined.     It  was,  indeed, 
another  chronicle  which  had  been  compiled  by  Georgius 
Syncellus  at  Constantinople  soon  after  the  year  900.     To 
this  chronicle  the  Greek  monk  had  transferred  almost  the 
whole  of  Eusebius,  together  with  additions  of  his  own. 
The  second  book  of  Eusebius,  therefore,  —  the  only  part 
that  any  one  was  sure  of,  —  was  published  at  last  in  1606, 
as  part  of  a  folio,  Thesaurus  Temporiim,  in  which  every 
chronological  relic  in  Greek  or  Latin  was  restored,  placed 
in  order,  and  made  clear.     This  was  an  immense  triumph 
for  Scaliger.     It  placed  him  at  the  very  head  of  all  critics 
and  chronologists  from  that  time  forever,  since  he  had 
performed  an  achievement  not  to  be  paralleled.     Many 
scholars,  however,  who  admired  his  genius  regarded  his 
theory  about  a  first  book  of  Eusebius  as  fanciful.     Could 
he  have  lived  beyond  the  life  of  ordinary  man,  he  would 
have  witnessed  a  triumph  even  greater  than  his  first.     In 
the  next  century,  while  the  Veronese  edition  of  St.  Jerome 
was   passing   through   the   press  under   the  direction  of 
Dominico  Vallarsi,  a  complete  Eusebius  in  an  Armenian 
translation    (a  manuscript  of  the   twelfth   century)    was 
slowly  making  its  way  to  Italy,  and  was  at  last  published 
(1818)  in  the  Armenian  Convent  at  Venice.     Then  it  was 
shown   that  Scaliger's  wonderful  divination  had  rightly 
guided  him;   that  there  was  a  first  book  to  the  Chronicle; 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  34 1 

that  St.  Jerome  had  translated  only  the  second  book; 
and  that  many  of  the  omissions  that  he  had  charged  against 
St.  Jerome  were  actual  omissions. 

This  remarkable  discovery  placed  Scaliger  indisputably 
above  the  heads  of  all  his  contemporaries.  It  was  his 
great  eminence  which  led  the  vile-minded  Scioppius  to 
assail  him  at  a  point  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  either 
scholarship  or  morals.  It  is  not  surprising,  however,  that 
many  who  admired  his  genius  were  not  friendly  toward  the 
man  himself.  His  learning  was  so  great  as  to  make  that 
of  other  men  seem  frivolous  and  slight,  especially  if  they 
were  men  of  his  own  age  or  older.  His  gravity  might  be 
called  austere.  His  thoughts  were  settled  almost  wholly 
on  his  learning.  He  had  a  manner  which  was  unfortunate, 
and  it  made  him  seem  supercilious.  For  these  reasons 
many  persons  disliked  him,  and  many  more  actually 
hated  him,  besides  those  who  were  jealous  of  his  great 
learning.  Thus  it  was  that  the  lampoon  of  Scioppius 
had  more  than  a  temporary  effect.  In  France  and  Ger- 
many and  Italy,  and  even  England,  the  name  of  Scaliger 
was  derided.  He  was  thought  of  mainly  as  a  mere  pedant, 
a  butt  for  cheap  wit,  and  one  who  might  readily  be  fleered 
at  with  reason.  Thus,  M.  Charles  Nisard  in  his  two  enter- 
taining but  trifling  volumes^  displayed  the  opinions  which 
have  long  been  held  of  Scaliger  in  France.     It  was  Pro- 

*  Nisard,  Les  Gladiateurs  de  la  Repiibligue  de  Lettres  (Paris,  1889) ;  and 
Le  Triumvirat  Litterairc  an  Seiziemc  Siccle  (Paris,  no  date). 


342  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

fessor  Jacob  Bemays  who,  in  1855,  revived  the  glory  of 
Scaliger  and  made  his  name  as  illustrious  as  it  had  been 
two  centuries  before;  and  it  was  Mark  Pattison  who 
aided  very  greatly  in  this  honourable  task.^  It  is  they  who 
recall  to  us,  not  merely  the  advance  which  Scaliger  made 
in  scientific  chronology,  and  likewise  in  constructive  criti- 
cism, but  that  he  had  also  helped  on  the  study  of  Numis- 
matics by  his  treatise  De  Re  Nummaria  (1616).  To  him 
are  due,  also,  twenty-four  indexes  to  Gruter's  Thesaurus 
Inscripliojium  Latinarum^  (1603). 

The  death  of  Scaliger  served  only  to  stimulate  the 
scholarly  activities  of  the  Netherlanders  and  Flemings, 
among  whom  we  find,  to  be  sure,  no  such  mighty  names 
as  those  of  the  Triumvirate,  but  many  which  have  a 
peculiar  significance  because  of  some  special  incident  or 
achievement.  Thus  Jacques  de  Cruques  (Latinised  as 
Cruquius)  will  remain  forever  famous  because  in  the  Abbey 
at  Blankenberghe  he  discovered  a  number  of  different  man- 
uscripts of  Horace  with  scholia  (1578).  Among  these 
manuscripts  was  the  famous  Codex  Blandinianus,  possibly 
the  oldest  {vetustissimus).     Unfortunately,  an  attack  by  a 

1  Bemays, /o^e^A  Justus  Scaliger  (Berlin,  1855) ;  and  Pattison,  Essays, 
i.  pp.  162-171  (Oxford,  1889). 

2  Janus  Gruter  (Jan  Gruytere)  was  a  classical  scholar  who  studied  in 
Cambridge  and  Leyden,  and  taught  in  Wittenberg  and  in  Heidelberg. 
He  was  in  Heidelberg  keeper  of  the  famous  Palatine  Library,  which  was 
presently  carried  to  Rome.  He  edited  a  number  of  classical  authors, 
but  is  best  known  for  his  collection  of  inscriptions,  which  was,  however, 
most  valuable  from  the  indexes  mentioned  above. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  343 

mob  upon  the  Abbey  led  to  the  destruction  of  this  invaluable 
manuscript,  so  that  we  have  now  only  the  notes  and  excerpts 
of  Cruquius.  It  is  certain  that  they  are  of  the  greatest  in- 
terest to  Horatians,  although  some  have  endeavoured  to 
repudiate  them  as  either  inventions  or  as  inaccurately 
written  out  by  Cruquius.  Nevertheless,  there  are  some 
lines  which  are  almost  certainly  genuine,  and  they  explain 
lines  existing  in  other  manuscripts,  which  had  hitherto 
been  almost  meaningless.^  Another  contemporary  scholar 
was  William  Canter,  a  well-known  Greek  critic  of  Utrecht, 
who  had  studied  in  Paris  and  edited  Euripides  (1571)  in  a 
fashion  which  made  the  distinction  between  strophe  and  anti- 
strophe  by  Arabic  numerals  in  the  margins.  He  also  edited 
Sophocles  (1579)  and  yEschylus  (1580).  Later  in  the  cen- 
tury is  Gerhard  Johannes  Vossius,  who  taught  at  Leyden 
and  afterwards  in  Amsterdam.  He  gave  patient  study  to 
the  syntax  of  Latin  as  well  as  to  its  etymology,  writing  five 
treatises  on  these  subjects;  and,  like  Scaliger,  another  Ars 
Poetica.  He  is  best  to  be  remembered,  however,  by  two 
treatises  which,  taken  together,  form  an  important  con- 
tribution to  the  history  of  ancient  literature.  The  first 
is  entitled  De  Historicis  GrcBcis  (1623-4)  and  De  His- 
toricis  Latinis  (1627).     All  of  his  books  were  widely  read 

'  As  to  eminent  scholars  who  doubt  the  accuracy  of  the  Codex  Blandi- 
nianus  and  even  the  veracity  of  Cruquius,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Keller's 
Epilegomena  zu  Horaz  (Leipzig,  1879),  accompanying  a  new  recension  of 
Keller  and  Holder's  first  edition  (Leipzig,  1870)  —  a  remarkable  piece 
of  critical  work,  though  not  convincing. 


344  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PmLOLOGY 

and  studied,  and  a  new  edition  of  the  former  was  printed 
at  Leipzig  in  1833.  His  interest  in  everything  classical 
was  very  wide.  He  wrote  a  monograph  on  art  {De 
Graphice)  and  in  modern  times  he  is  the  author  of  a  very 
early  treatise  on  Mythology  {De  Theologia  Gentili).  His 
brother-in-law,  Franciscus  Junius,  who  spent  thirty  years 
of  his  life  in  England  as  librarian  to  Earl  of  Arundel,  made 
a  special  study  of  ancient  paintings  and  published  a  vol- 
ume De  Pictura  Veterum  (1637).  Daniel  Heinsius  (1581- 
1639)  was  the  beloved  pupil  of  Scaliger,  and  in  his  arms 
that  great  scholar  died.  Heinsius  was  a  multifarious 
editor  of  classical  books,  though  hardly  worthy  to  rank  with 
most  of  his  contemporaries. 

When  Scaliger  died  in  1609  the  chair  of  history,  which 
was  thus  vacated,  was  left  without  an  occupant  for  twenty- 
two  years,  although  a  very  worthy  successor  would  have 
been  Vossius,  who  was  widely  known  by  his  historical  writ- 
ings on  ancient  history.  The  chair  was  not  filled,  however, 
until  1 63 1,  and  then  by  a  foreigner,  Claude  de  Saumaise 
(Salmasius),  —  a  brilliant  figure  among  the  sturdy  Hol- 
landers, and  one  who  attracted  admiration,  both  for  his 
personality  and  for  his  varied  learning.  In  1606  he  had 
discovered  the  older  Anthology  by  Cephalas  in  the  Palatine 
Library  at  Heidelberg.  The  influence  there  probably  in- 
duced him  to  become  a  Protestant,  which  was,  indeed,  the 
religion  of  his  mother.  In  1609  he  attempted  successfully 
a  genuine  feat  of  scholarship,  in  editing  Florus,  with  notes, 


THE    PERIOD    or    NATIONALISM  345 

which  he  compiled  within  ten  days.  In  the  next  year  he 
returned  to  France,  studying  jurisprudence  but  receiving  no 
office  because  of  his  religion.  He  was,  however,  devoted  to 
the  classics,  and  when,  in  1620,  he  published  Casaubon's 
notes  on  the  Historia  Augusta,  he  made  so  many  acute  and 
brilliant  additions  of  his  own  as  to  render  his  name  illus- 
trious. His  Protestantism  was  evinced  when  he  married 
Anne  Mercier,  a  Huguenot  of  distinguished  family,  and  he 
reached  the  height  of  his  fame  by  his  commentary  on  the 
Polyhistor  of  Solinus  (1629),  a  work  that  still  remains  a 
proof  of  extraordinary  and  conscientious  industry.  So 
anxious  was  Salmasius  to  attain  complete  accuracy  that  he 
learned  Arabic  to  help  him  in  the  botanical  part  of  his  work ; 
and  he  was  so  unwilling  to  let  his  book  go  to  press  until  he 
should  have  consulted  a  rare  treatise  by  Didymus  that  the 
third  section  of  his  commentary  {Dc  Herbis  et  Plantis) 
did  not  appear  until  after  his  death.  Salmasius  was  at 
once  a  scholar  of  high  rank,  and  a  gentleman  of  polished 
manners  —  a  genuine  cavalier.  It  was  natural  that  he 
should  have  received  urgent  calls  from  Oxford,  Padua, 
and  Bologna.  All  of  these  he  declined.  But  in  1631  the 
University  of  Leyden  presented  him  with  a  research  pro- 
fessorship and  a  stipend  of  two  thousand  livres  a  year,  a 
sum  which  was  soon  raised  to  three  thousand.  The  only 
thing  required  of  him  was  that  he  should  live  in  Leyden, 
and  refute  the  annals  of  Baronius.^     He  fulfilled  the  former 

'  Supra,  p.  30Q  n. 


346  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

condition,  but  conveniently  forgot  the  second.  He  was 
very  prolific,  however,  in  tracts  and  monographs,  most  of 
them  classical.  In  spite  of  his  Protestantism,  and  his 
attacks  upon  the  papal  power,  Salmasius  was  popular  in 
France,  and  the  scholars  of  Paris  evidently  hoped  that  he 
would  change  his  faith  and  return  to  them.  He  was,  in- 
deed, made  a  royal  counsellor  and  a  Knight  of  St.  Michael, 
and  great  sums  of  money  were  offered  him;  but  while  he 
accepted  the  honours,  he  refused  the  money  and  remained 
faithful  to  his  religion. 

Salmasius  is  now  best  remembered  by  his  Defensio  Regia 
pro  Carolo  I,  which  he  wrote  in  defence  of  Charles  I  of 
England  and  of  absolute  monarchy.  It  is  remembered 
because  it  drew  forth  from  Milton  a  virulent  answer. 
Many  have  said  that  Milton  overwhelmed  Salmasius  in 
this  controversy;  but  such  an  opinion  is  due  to  the  parti- 
ality given  by  English-speaking  people  to  Milton,  in  this 
as  in  other  things.  The  truth  is  that  the  Defensio,  being 
written  by  one  Protestant  against  another,  was  very  widely 
read  and  had  considerable  influence.  Charles  -11  paid  the 
cost  of  printing  and  gave  the  author  a  hundred  pounds. 
Queen  Christina  of  Sweden  invited  Salmasius  to  visit  her 
at  her  court,  and  loaded  him  with  gifts  and  other  distinc- 
tions. The  first  edition  of  his  Defensio  was  anonymous. 
A  French  translation  appeared  at  once  under  the  name  of 
Le  Gros  and  was  also  the  work  of  Salmasius.  It  must 
be  said  that  neither  Milton  nor  Salmasius  showed  his  full 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  347 

powers  in  this  famous  controversy.  Milton  allowed  him- 
self too  much  vituperation  and  vile  language,  while  Sal- 
masius  was  not  sufficiently  carried  away  by  his  subject 
to  give  his  words  the  ringing  force  of  truth. 

Nevertheless,  Salmasius  was  gladly  welcomed  back  to 
Leyden,  where  he  died  soon  after,  in  1653.  He  had  by 
his  great  powers  made  himself  a  literary  dictator,  and  we 
must  ascribe  this  to  his  vast  erudition,  his  natural  good 
sense,  his  keen  perception  of  an  author's  meaning,  all  of 
which  make  his  text  corrections  often  ingenious  and  fre- 
quently most  felicitous.  He  was,  moreover,  neither  a  sour 
Puritan  nor  a  dissolute  cavalier  ;  but  liberal,  generous,  and 
wise,  and  exercising  a  fortitude  that  enabled  him  to  com- 
bat ill  health,  and  yet  produce  books  to  the  number  of 
eighty,  every  one  of  which  had  a  distinct  value. 

Contemporary  with  Salmasius  and  Vossius,  and  like- 
wise a  great  pillar  of  Dutch  scholarship,  was  Hugo  Grotius 
(in  his  native  tongue  called  Huig  van  Groot),  one  of 
those  ancient  scholars  and  writers  who,  like  Plato  and 
Thucydides,  and  C^sar  and  Sallust,  was  a  man  of  action 
and  thought  as  well  as  literary  distinction.  He  served 
his  State  as  well  as  raised  the  reputation  of  his  country 
for  scholarship.  Young  Grotius  was  able  to  write  good 
Latin  verses  at  the  age  of  nine.  He  entered  the  Univer- 
sity of  Leyden  at  twelve.  Three  years  later  he  began  an 
edition  of  the  encyclopaedia  of  JNIartianus  Capella.  In  fact, 
he  was  a  great  favourite  of  Joseph  Scaliger,  who  urged  him 


348  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

to  edit  this  educational  allegory.  After  travelling  on  the 
Continent,  he  took  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  at  Leyden, 
and  entered  on  actual  practice  as  an  advocate.  He  was 
successful  in  his  profession,  and  yet  he  could  not  put 
aside  the  classics.  His  Latin  style  was  so  pure  that  he 
was  even  read  in  the  schools  side  by  side  with  Terence, 
just  as  Muretus  in  France  had  been  read  side  by  side 
with  Cicero.  Apart  from  his  text  editions,^  however,  he 
wrought  out  two  great  works  which  show  how  he  was 
divided  in  his  studies  between  the  classics,  pure  and  simple, 
and  juristic  science.  The  first  is  his  extraordinary  treatise 
on  the  principles  of  jurisprudence  as  relating  to  comba- 
tants. He  went,  however,  much  farther  than  this,  and 
opened  many  larger  questions  which  were  subsequently 
to  be  developed  by  those  who  looked  upon  Grotius  as  a 
master.  Thus,  for  example,  he  was  the  first  to  attempt 
to  formulate  a  principle  of  right,  as  a  basis  for  society 
and  government,  outside  the  Church  or  the  Bible.  His 
treatise  De  lure  Belli  et  Pacts'^  marks  an  epoch  in  the 
science  of  law.  It  is  worth  noting  that  even  in  this  work 
one  is  struck  by  the  beauty  of  his  Latin  style,  and  the 
glimpses  of  half-forgotten  pearls  with  which  he  con- 
sciously adorned  his  pages. 

The  other  remarkable  work  which  he  accomplished  was 

1  Of  Martianus  Capella,  the  Pharsalia,  and  Silius  Italicus. 
*  Published  at  Paris  in  1625.     A  French  translation  was  long  afterward 
made  by  H6ly  (Paris,  1875). 


THE   PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  349 

his  translation  into  Latin  verse  of  the  Anthologia  Planudea.^ 
This  was  the  first  and  best  translation  of  these  poems,  so 
varied,  so  sparkling  with  wit,  and  again  so  full  of  a  per- 
vasive tenderness  as  to  make  it  seem  impossible  that  a 
grave  jurisconsult  who  had  passed  his  fiftieth  year  could 
turn  from  his  legal  studies  to  attempt  so  difficult  a  task  as 
this.  But  having  attempted  it,  he  succeeded,  and  his 
flowers  of  elegance  and  grace  lose  little  or  nothing  by  the 
artful  way  in  which  he  has  transformed  them  from  Greek 
to  Latin.  Not  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
was  any  serious  rivalry  with  Grotius  attempted;  and  then 
its  preparation  occupied  Van  Bosch  and  Van  Lennep  for 
seven  years.^ 

With  Grotius  ^  ends  the  earlier  type  of  Netherlandish 
scholar.  For  a  time,  there  are  no  giants  to  be  noted  in 
the  universities  of  Holland.  There  is  much  making  of  texts, 
as  by  the  two  Gronovii,^  the  second  of  whom  compiled 
in  thirteen  volumes  an  immense  Thesaurus  Antiquitatum 
GrcBcarum;^  Nicolaus  Heinsius,  the  son  of  Scaliger's  dis- 
ciple Daniel  Heinsius;  and  also  J.  G.  Graevius  (Greffe), 
who  capped  the  Thesaurus  of  Heinsius  by  publishing 
three  thesauri,  containing  in  all  thirteen  volumes,  relating 
to  antiquarian  topics. 

>  Supra,  pp.  256,  257. 

2  Utrecht,  1 795-1822. 

'  See  de  Vries,  Hugo  Grotius  (Amst.,  1827). 

*  J.  F.  Gronov  (1611-1671)  and  Jacob  Gronov  (1645-1716). 

^  Published  in  1702. 


350  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

The  study  of  ancient  coins  was  taken  up  by  Ezechiel 
Spanheim/  whose  life  represents  the  union  of  the  Protes- 
tant countries,  since  he  was  bom  in  Geneva,  educated  in 
Leyden,  and  died  in  London.  Besides  his  Dissertatio^ 
he  wrote  a  famous  commentary  on  the  Hymns  of  Cal- 
limachus,  which  is  still  valuable  in  the  edition  of  Emesti 
(1761).  Spanheim  was  an  industrious,  though  not  an 
inspired,  scholar,  so  that  Wyttenbach  said  of  him:  "  Span- 
heimius  multa,  non  multum,  legerat." 

The  two  Peter  Burmanns  (Burmanni)  revived  the  old 
supremacy  of  Holland  in  letters.  The  elder  ^  was  a  stu- 
dent of  Graevius,  but  spent  the  last  twenty-six  years  of  his 
life  as  Professor  of  Eloquence  at  Leyden.  He  was  a 
voluminous  editor,  confining  himself,  however,  to  the 
Latin  writers  both  in  prose  and  poetry,  for  which  he  has 
been  much  blamed  by  the  Grecians.  The  most  notable 
are  his  editions  of  the  PoetcE  Latini  Minores,  and  of 
Petronius  in  prose.  His  editions  were  largely  Variorum 
editions,  and  many  of  them  are  dull;  though  sometimes 
when  his  prejudices  were  aroused,  he  became  so  scurrilous 
that  his  introductions  could  not  be  printed  during  his  life- 
time. So  laborious  was  he,  and  so  patiefit,  that  he  was 
called  by  many  "  the  beast  of  burden  "  (Burdomanus)  of 
classical    learning.     Students  of    the  history  of   scholar- 


* 1629-1710. 

*  Dissertatio  de  Usu  et  PrcRstantia  Numismatum  Antiquorum  (1664). 

» 1668-1741. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  351 

ship  in  the  Netherlands  will,  however,  continue  to  read 
the  huge  quarto  volumes  of  his  Sylloge  Epistolarum  a  Viris 
Illustribus  Scriptarum,  which  contains  material  of  great 
value  relating  to  classicists.^ 

Just  as  Burmann  devoted  his  whole  life  to  Latin  studies, 
so  the  German,  Ludolf  Kiister  (Neocorus)^  represented  the 
investigation  of  Greek,  Kiister  was  a  German  by  birth, 
but  something  of  a  cosmopolite,  since  he  visited  Utrecht, 
Paris,  and  Cambridge,  then  lived  for  a  long  time  at  Rotter- 
dam, and  died  in  Paris.  He  wrote  (1696)  a  critical  history 
of  Homer,  and  in  1705  an  edition  of  Suidas  in  three  large 
volumes,  published  by  the  Cambridge  Press.  He  then 
busied  himself  on  a  life  of  Pythagoras  (1707)  and  followed 
it  up  with  a  massive  edition  of  Aristophanes,  including  all 
the  Greek  scholia,  with  a  metrical  version  parallel  to  the 
text.  He  included  also  at  the  end  of  the  volume  all  the 
modem  comments,  besides  many  notes  sent  by  the  great 
English  classicist,  Richard  Bentley.^ 

The  number  of  famous  Dutch  scholars  who  flourished 
in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  is  notable  be- 
yond those  whom  we  have  already  mentioned.  Thus, 
Lambert  Bos,*  the  contemporary  of  Kuster,  studied  Greek 
grammar  with  much  care  at  Franeker ;  and  there  was  also 
the  great  edition  of  Livy  by  Arnold  Drakenborch.  This 
was    originally    in    seven    quarto    volumes    (i  738-1 746). 

1  See  L.  Miiller,  op.  cU.,  pp.  54-59.  ^  Infra,  pp.  361-371. 

*  1670-1716.  ■*  1670-1717. 


352  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

His  contemporary,  Siegbert  Havercamp,  Professor  at 
Leyden,  edited  Lucretius  in  t^vo  large  volumes,  full  of 
errors.  He  was  careless  in  neglecting  the  value  of  what 
lay  nearest  at  hand,  i.e.  the  Leyden  manuscripts.  He  col- 
lected a  number  of  tracts  on  the  pronunciation  of  Greek, 
and  it  was  this  collection  which  probably  led  to  the  ap- 
pointment of  Havercamp  as  Professor  of  Greek  at  Leyden. 
This  honour  should  have  been  given,  as  is  now  plainly 
seen,  to  Tiberius  Hemsterhuys,^  educated  at  Groningen 
and  Leyden.  At  the  latter  university,  when  a  mere  youth, 
he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  public  library,  and  at  nine- 
teen was  called  to  the  chair  of  mathematics  at  the  Athe- 
naeum at  Amsterdam  (1704).  His  acute  criticism  of  clas- 
sical authors  who  were  then  being  edited  by  the  different 
professors  led  him  to  a  distinction  which  was  to  become 
very  great.  J.  H.  Lederlin,  who  had  been  engaged  to 
edit  Julius  Pollux,  threw  up  his  engagement,  and  de- 
parted suddenly  for  Strassburg,  where  a  professorship  had 
been  offered  him.  The  remaining  three  books  of  the  work 
were  assigned  to  Hemsterhuys,  who,  with  natural  modesty, 
wrote  to  Bcntley,  and  begged  for  his  opinion  on  ten  pas- 
sages in  the  last  two  books.  Bentley's  prompt  answer 
to  all  these  questions,  thrown  off  at  once  in  a  letter  that 
fills  three  pages  of  print,  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  his 
versatility  and  ready  scholarship.^ 

1 1685-1766. 

2  Still  more  striking  was  another  incident  connected  with  this  book. 
When  Bentley  received  the  first  edition,  he  wrote  back  in  words  of  high 


THE    PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  353 

Later,  this  eminent  Greek  scholar  began  to  edit  the 
whole  of  Lucian,  the  minuteness  of  which  can  be  judged 
by  the  fact  that  in  ten  years  he  had  only  translated  and 
elucidated  six  of  the  texts.  At  that  stage,  however,  the 
printing  began,  but  proceeded  slowly.  The  publisher, 
wishing  to  see  the  work  completed  during  his  own  life- 
time, the  remaining  five-sixths  were  given  over  to  one 
J.  F.  Reitz  ^  of  Utrecht,  who  finished  them  in  five  years. 
Hemsterhuys,  likewise,  did  much  text  criticism  in  the 
editions  of  other  men,  correcting  mistakes  and  emending 
doubtful  passages.  Meanwhile,  he  had  been  advanced  to 
a  professorship  at  the  University  of  Harderwyk.  Much  to 
the  disappointment  of  friends  of  learning,  Hemsterhuys 
did  not  succeed  Gronovius  at  Leyden,  though  he  became 
professor  at  Franeker.  Finally,  however,  in  1740,  two 
years  before  the  death  of  Havercamp,  he  received  the 

praise,  but  regretted  that  so  learned  a  scholar  as  Hemsterhuys  should 
have  dealt  carelessly  with  the  metrical  quotations  in  Pollux.  Bentley, 
thereupon,  proceeds  to  make  the  necessary  corrections,  and  does  so  with 
such  ease  and  fluency  and  fulness  as  would  astonish  the  ripest  scholar. 
They  did,  indeed,  bring  gall  and  wormwood  to  young  Hemsterhuys. 
He  had  been  well  aware  of  the  importance  of  these  quotations,  and  had 
endeavoured  with  all  his  skill  to  rectify  them.  Hence  Bentley's  easy 
mastery  of  the  subject  seemed  maddening  to  Hemsterhuys  who  was  so 
distressed,  that  he  resolved  to  give  up  Greek  forever;  and  for  several 
months  did  actually  not  allow  himself  to  open  a  Greek  book. 

^  Reitz  (1695-1778)  was  head  master  of  the  local  school  at  Utrecht. 
It  was  in  this  position  that  he  assisted  Hemsterhuys;  but  later  for  a 
period  of  thirty  years  he  was  Professor  of  History  and  Eloquence  in  the 
University. 

2A 


354  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Professorship  of  Greek  in  Leyden,  where  he  revived 
Hellenic  studies  so  successfully  that  scholars  from  other 
lands  flocked  to  hear  him,  while  he  was  joined  by  his  most 
famous  pupil,  David  Ruhnken.^  Ruhnken  had  been 
studying  Greek  at  Wittenberg;  but  so  famous  was  Hem- 
sterhuys,  that  even  in  the  German  universities  students 
were  advised  to  seek  the  Netherlands  for  the  best  instruc- 
tion in  the  Hellenic  literature  and  language.  Such 
renown  had  sprung  from  the  arduous  and  brilliant  labours 
of  Hemsterhuys,  Oudendorp,  L.  K.  Valckenaer,  Peter 
Wesseling,  and  one  of  the  foreign  contingent,  Jacques 
Philippe  d'Orville,  whose  studies  were  made  entirely  in 
the  Netherlands.  There  had  been,  indeed,  a  sort  of 
rivalry  between  the  Grecians  and  the  Latinists  at  Leyden, 
and  the  other  great  Dutch  universities. 

For  a  time  Latin  was  regarded  as  the  chief  of  the  classics, 
while  Greek  was,  as  it  were,  an  oriental  tongue  to  be 
grouped  with  Arabic  and  Hebrew.  But  Hemsterhuys  and 
his  colleague  had  taken  Greek  out  of  this  unnatural 
position,  and  had  taught  it  and  its  great  importance, 
with  brilliant  effort  and  complete  success.  On  the  other 
hand,  Latin  for  a  time  had  become  a  sort  of  stamping 
ground  for  dullards,  until  Franz  van  Oudendorp  ^  be- 
came a  professor  at  Leyden,  with  the  result  that  Greek 
and  Latin  were  each  represented  by  a  man  of  stimu- 
lating power.     Oudendorp's  Lucan,  his  editions  of  Caesar, 

^ 1723-1798.  ^ 1696-1761. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  35$ 

Suetonius,  and  Apuleius  were  excellent  specimens  of  exe- 
getical  work. 

The  Anglo-Dutch  Period.  —  It  has  been  said  that  the 
Protestant  countries  in  the  North  had,  by  a  natural  sym- 
pathy, gradually  been  drawing  together  after  the  outbreak 
of  Protestantism.  But  although  the  very  early  English 
scholars  whom  we  have  mentioned  as- flourishing  in  Ire- 
land and  in  the  abbeys  were  in  close  contact  with  the 
schools  of  France  and  the  splendid  Italian  seats  of  learning, 
not  so  much  can  be  said  for  the  Englishmen  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  They  had,  however,  a  certain  full-bodied 
enjoyment  of  the  pagan  side  of  classicism.  They  were  not 
averse  to  the  songs  of  the  Goliardi;  and,  as  a  matter  of 
pride,  they  patronised  learning  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
and  some  of  the  public  schools. 

We  have  already  seen  that  many  young  Englishmen 
came  to  the  Netherlands  to  study  for  a  while,  and  the 
Netherlands  were  a  source  of  English  classical  learning. 
A  good  type  of  these  cultivated  Englishmen  was  Sir 
Henry  Savile,^  an  Oxford  man,  who  was  tutor  in  Greek  to 
Queen  Elizabeth.  Savile  was  a  wealthy,  high-spirited 
man,  of  much  learning,  although  his  learning  was  of  a 
serious  and  painstaking  sort.  He  translated  four  books 
of  Tacitus,  the  HistoricB  and  also  the  Agricola.  Fur- 
thermore, he  wrote  an  excursus  on  the  military  usages  of 
the   Romans  —  a   pamphlet  which   was   translated   into 

*  1549-1622. 


356  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Latin  at  Heidelberg  in  1601.  Later  he  became  Provost 
at  Eton,  and  there  he  introduced  a  stem  and  austere  disci- 
pUne.  He  was  one  of  those  who  were  associated  in  pre- 
paring the  authorised  version  of  the  Bible,  and  was  knighted 
by  James  I. 

Sir  Henry  endeavoured,  as  a  work  by  which  he  should 
be  remembered,  to  prepare  a  great  edition  of  St.  Chrysos- 
tom.     He  secured  manuscript  collections  from  Paris,  but 
could  not  get  a  font  of  the  royal  type;  whereupon,  Savile 
bought  a  special  font,  employed  the  King's  printer,  and 
oversaw  the  actual  printing  of  the  eight  folio  volumes 
which  were  done  at  Eton  at  a  cost  of  ;^8ooo,  the  paper 
alone   costing   £2000.     Casaubon,  who   was   in   England 
while  this  work  was  going  on,  describes  it  accurately  as 
produced   privata    impensa,    animo    regio.     No    master- 
piece  of    English    scholarship   had   heretofore    been    so 
splendidly  executed  and  evinced  such  breadth  of  erudi- 
tion joined  with  lavishness  of  outlay.     Savile  was,  indeed, 
a  fitting  type  of  the  magnificent  English  scholar  of  the 
early    school.     Free-handed    in    gratifying    his    scholarly 
tastes,    his    generosity   was    felt    all    over    England.     He 
collected  manuscripts,  patronised  other  scholars;   founded 
professorships  at  Oxford,  and  aided  Bodley  in  founding 
the  famous  Bodleian  Library. 

Apart  from  his  love  of  scholarship,  Savile  was,  likewise, 
chivalrous  in  manner,  and  somewhat  affected  in  his  speech. 
He  regarded  himself  as   "an  extraordinarily  handsome 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  357 

man,  no  lady  having  a  finer  complexion."  His  apprecia- 
tion of  himself  is  commemorated  by  a  portrait  at  Oxford, 
another  at  Eton,  and  by  sculptured  monuments  at  Merton 
College,  Oxford,  and  at  Eton.  Associates  of  Savile  were 
Andrew  Downes/  one  of  the  revisers  of  the  King  James 
version  of  the  Bible;  but  so  fond  was  he  of  his  haunts  at 
Cambridge  that  he  is  said  never  to  have  attended  the  meet- 
ings of  the  revisers  "  till  he  was  either  fetched  or  threat- 
ened with  a  Pursivant."  He  was  especially  noted  for 
his  knowledge  of  Greek,  and  it  is  described  by  Fuller  as 
"composed  of  Greek  and  industry." 

Francis  Bacon,  Lord  Verulam,^  entered  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  at  the  age  of  twelve;  and  as  a  student  he  is 
said  to  have  browsed  chiefly  among  Cicero,  Li\7-,  Sallust, 
and  Caesar  in  Latin;  and  in  Greek  among  Homer,  Xeno- 
phon,  Plato,  and  Aristotle.  Later  he  came  to  care  little 
for  Aristotle,  while  his  attitude  toward  ancient  philosophy 
is  given  in  a  sentence  by  Lord  Macaulay:  "Two  words 
form  the  key  of  Baconian  philosophy  —  utility,  and  pro- 
gress." Bacon  is  unique  because  he  regretted  that  there 
was  a  noticeable  absence  of  any  history  of  learning. 
Most  striking  is  the  famous  Novum  Organum  (1620), 
which,  by  its  title,  declares  the  author  to  enter  the  philo- 
sophic field  against  the  logical  doctrine  of  Aristotle.  As 
Aristotle  thought  that  learning  should  be  useful  and,  there- 
fore, content  to  be  stationary,  Bacon  proceeds  to  develop 
^ 1549-1628.  * 1561-1629. 


358  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

a  system  which  shall  be  fruitful,  and  given  to  the  develop- 
ment of  new  learning. 1 

There  remain  in  this  earlier  period  Ludwig  Caspar 
Valckenaer,  a  professor  in  Leyden  who  made  rather 
noticeable  editions  of  the  Hippolytus  and  Phcenissce  of 
Euripides,  and  sundry  editions  of:  (i)  The  Bucolic  Poets, 
(2)  The  Fragments  of  Callimachus,  (3)  Diatribe  de  Aris- 
tohulo.  Valckenaer's  lectures  were  attended  by  English 
students  as  were  those  of  Ruhnken,  another  professor  at 
Leyden,  who  is  to  be  remembered  chiefly  by  his  Lexicon 
to  the  Platonic  words  in  the  TimcEus  and  his  critical  his- 
tory of  the  Greek  orators.^  Daniel  Wyttenbach,^  a  Swiss 
by  birth,  and  educated  at  Marburg,  studied  also  at  the 
German  University  of  Gottingen.  He  abandoned  Ger- 
many to  live  at  Leyden  under  Ruhnken,  after  which  he 
taught  at  Amsterdam  for  twenty-eight  years,  then  return- 
ing to  Leyden  for  seventeen  years.  Wyttcnbach  produced 
a  complete  edition  of  Plutarch's  Moralia,  with  Greek  texts, 
and  Latin  translation,  with  two  volumes  of  notes,  and  two 
of  an  index,  containing  seven  hundred  pages.     It  is  inter- 

'  Another  interesting  writer  and  scholar  of  the  same  time  was  Robert 
Burton,  who  produced,  after  much  quiet  study,  the  famous  Anatomy  of 
Melancholy  (162 1).  This  volume  is  a  delightful  blending  of  what  is  grave, 
and  what  is  gay,  filled  with  apt  and  quaint  quotations  that  contain  the 
essence  of  human  wisdom,  so  that  from  them  many  a  gem  has  been 
drawn  without  acknowledgment. 

^  See  Wyttenbach,  Vita  Ruhnkenii,  pp.  67-300,  pp.  1 75-181;  L. 
Miiller,  op.  cit.  pp.  84-88,  101-103. 

' 1746-1820. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  359 

esting  with  regard  to  the  scholarly  relations  existing  be- 
tween Germany  and  Great  Britain,  that  even  when  the 
two  countries  were  at  war,  it  was  decided  to  print  this  great 
monumental  work  at  the  Oxford  Press.  The  instalments 
of  manuscript  were  sent  successively  to  the  Press  through 
the  British  minister  at  the  Hague,  and  several  of  these 
boxes  were  protected  in  a  chest  covered  with  pitch,  that 
was  mislaid  for  two  years  and  a  half,  "  during  all  which 
time,"  says  Dr.  Sandys,  "  the  editor  (Thomas  Gaisford) 
was  anxiously  uncertain  as  to  its  fate."  ^ 

In  the  course  of  time  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge  began 
to  spread  their  stately  halls,  and  to  cultivate  the  new  learn- 
ing with  Greek  restored  in  some  of  the  colleges  where  it  had 
become  almost  unknown.  There  was  at  first  a  feud  be- 
tween the  Latinists,  who  had  thought  the  Roman  tongue 
sufficient,  and  their  fellow-students  —  the  two  bands  de- 
scribing themselves,  respectively,  as  "  Greeks "  and 
"  Trojans."  Their  animosity  at  times  became  so  rampant, 
that  parties  of  them  took  to  fighting  in  the  streets.  But 
the  progress  of  learning  went  steadily  on,  until  England 
possessed  classicists  who  were  deserving  of  being  matched 
with  the  great  men  upon  the  Continent.  Charles  Burncy  ^ 
declared,  about  the  year  1800,  that  England  had  possessed 
a  Pleiad:  Richard  Bentley  (1662-1742);   Richard  Dawes 

^  Sandys,  op.  cit.  ii.  p.  463. 

*  1757-1818.  He  wrote  a  critical  discourse  on  the  metres  of  jEschy- 
lus  (1809). 


360  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

(1708-1766);  Jeremiah  Markland  (1693-1776);  John 
Taylor  (1703-1766);  Richard  Porson  (1759-1808); 
Thomas    Tyrw-hitt    (i  730-1 786);     and    Jonathan   Toup 

(1713-1785)-^ 

1  Andrew  Downes  (d.  1628)  is  associated  with  Savile's  gigantic  edition 
of  St.  Chrysostom.  Greek  was  largely  restored  by  him  in  Cambridge, 
where  he  held  a  professorship  of  Greek  for  forty  years  (1586-1625). 
John  Taylor  (i  703-1 766)  edited  Lysias,  ^schylus,  and  several  orations 
of  Demosthenes.  Peter  Elmsley  (1773-1825)  made,  besides  an  edition 
of  Thucydides,  some  excellent  annotations  on  various  dramas.  Thomas 
Gataker  (1574-1654),  a  Puritan  scholar,  published  a  Greek  text  of  Mar- 
cus Aurelius,  accompanied  by  a  Latin  version,  and  a  commentary,  so  that 
this  book  was  "the  earliest  edition  of  any  classical  writer  pubUshed  in 
England  with  original  annotations"  (Hallam).  In  his  introduction 
there  are  many  observations  on  the  Stoic  philosophy,  and  many  illustra- 
tive passages  from  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers  are  given  in  the  note. 
Morhof,  in  his  Polyhistor,  i.  p.  926  (Wiemar,  1747),  placed  Gataker  among 
the  six  Protestants  who  were  deeply  read;  and  Gassendi  calls  him  "a 
scholar  of  enormous  reading."  A  very  versatile  investigator  was  the 
jurist,  John  Selden  (i  584-1 654),  who  sat  in  the  Long  Parliament,  and  in 
161 7  brought  forth  two  works  of  which  the  first  (The  History  of  Tythes) 
was  written  in  English,  while  the  second  treatise  {De  Diis  Syris)  was  in 
Latin,  and  had  a  certain  mysticism  running  through  it.  His  name,  how- 
ever, is  far  better  known  from  its  connection  with  the  famous  Arundel 
Marbles.  These  marbles  were  purchased  in  Assyria  by  an  agent  of  the 
second  Earl  of  Arundel.  They  were  shipped  to  England,  and  placed  in 
the  gardens  of  Arundel  House  (1627).  They  consisted  of  two  large  frag- 
ments of  a  chronological  table,  which  as  a  whole  was  called  Marmor 
Parium.  The  table  begins  with  Cecrops,  and  continues  as  far  as  354  B.C. 
The  lost  fragment,  which  would  have  been  the  third,  ended  with  263- 
262  B.C.,  the  year  of  its  composition.  Selden  deciphered  and  interpreted 
the  inscription,  and  published  the  Marmora  Arunddliana  with  the  most 
careful  notes,  description,  and  much  learned  information.  When  the 
marbles  first  came  to  England,  they  were  gazed  at  by  multitudes  at  Arun- 
del House,  and  Selden  won  universal  praise.     About  1667,  John  Evelyn's 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  361 

Of  these  seven  men,  Richard  Bentley  was  the  most 
memorable  master  of  Greek  and  Latin.  He  comes,  indeed, 
in  some  respects  close  to  the  great  Continental  scholars, 
having  the  brilliancy  of  Muret,  the  versatility  of  Salmasius, 
and  some  of  the  depth  of  reading  which  was  Scaliger's. 
He  was  a  burly,  contentious  Englishman,  with  a  violent 

diary  describes  the  famous  marbles  as  broken,  and  "scattered  up  and 
down  about  the  garden,  —  exceedingly  impaired  by  the  corrosive  air  of 
London."  Some  of  these  fragments  had  been  used  in  repairing  the  house, 
while  the  upper  half  of  the  Marmor  Parium  was  built  into  the  chimney, 
whence  it  was  rescued  once  more  by  Selden.  At  Evelyn's  request  250 
inscribed  pieces  of  marble  were  given  to  the  University  of  Oxford.  Only 
136  arrived  there.  First  they  were  inserted  in  the  walls  of  the  Shel- 
donian  Theatre,  and  finally  were  placed  in  the  University  Galleries. 
Milton  has  been  spoken  of  already  as  a  controversialist  and  classicist,  but 
belongs  to  the  category  of  poets  rather  than  that  of  professional  linguists. 
He  was  a  wide  reader,  wrote  a  number  of  Latin  verses,  "in  the  springtime 
of  an  ardent  and  brilliant  fancy."  His  Tractate  on  Education  (1642)  is, 
however,  less  the  work  of  a  poet  than  of  a  schoolmaster  and  encyclopjedist, 
since  he  arranged  the  classic  authors  according  to  a  plan  which  he  im- 
agined will  form  an  "easie  and  delightful  Book  of  Education."  He  com- 
mends also  the  famous  Italians  for  their  commentaries  and  criticisms. 
Castelvetro,  Tasso,  and  Mazzoni  are  those  whom  he  especially  mentions. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  advises  the  Italian  pronunciation  of  Latin 
and  apparently  of  Greek.  John  Hales  (d.  1656),  and  the  still  more  famous 
Jeremy  Taylor  (d.  1667),  and  the  dreamy  "Cambridge  Platonists"  are 
an  interesting  but  unimportant  group  of  scholars.  John  Evelyn  (1620- 
1706),  though  best  known  for  his  English  diary,  translated  into  his  native 
tongue  the  first  book  of  Lucretius  with  a  commentary  (1656).  A  very 
learned  lady  was  Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson,  who  translated  the  entire  six 
books  of  Lucretius,  dedicating  them  to  the  Earl  of  Anglesey.  Her  lack 
of  sympathy  with  the  poet  is  shown  by  her  speaking  of  him  as  "this 
Dog,"  and  of  "the  foppish,  casuall  dance  of  attoms,"  as  "an  impious  doc- 
trine."   Thomas  Creech,  a  fellow  of  All  Souls,  put  forth  a  third  transla- 


362  HISTORY    OP    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

temper,  and  a  pride  so  great,  that  when  he  was  chaplain  to 
StiUingfleet,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  a  nobleman,  who  was 
the  Bishop's  guest,  said  to  him  after  dinner:  "  That 
chaplain  of  yours  is  a  very  extraordinary  man."     "  Yes," 

tion  of  Lucretius  and  an  edition  of  it  with  notes  (1695)  at  the  Oxford 
Press.  Creech  was  a  man  of  good  taste,  and  a  more  serious  scholar  than 
most  of  his  contemporaries.  Besides  his  Lucretius,  he  translated  portions 
of  Horace,  Theocritus,  Manilius,  Ovid,  Juvenal,  and  Plutarch.  The 
death  of  John  Dryden  occurred  in  the  same  year  as  that  of  Creech  (1700). 
This  manly  poet  had  translated  into  metrical  English  not  only  Vergil, 
but  also  Horace,  Perseus,  and  Juvenal.  His  renderings  were  far  more 
spirited  than  Pope's  in  his  Homer ;  though  Pope,  by  his  neatness  of  phras- 
ing, brought  the  great  epic  poet  into  the  hands  of  many.  Pope,  however, 
like  the  elder  Dumas  had  collaborators,  so  that  much  of  what  passes  as 
his  v/ork  is  in  reality  the  work  of  others.  Furthermore,  a  rhymed  version 
compelled  him  to  depart  from  the  original,  or  else  to  supplement  it;  so 
that  the  best-known  couplet  in  his  Odyssey  is  partly  an  interpolation :  — 

True  friendship's  laws  are  by  this  rule  exprest, 
Welcome  the  coming,  speed  the  parting  guest.  —  xv.  74. 

The  seventeenth  century  was,  in  fact,  one  of  classical  taste.  Joseph  Addi- 
son, John  Dryden,  John  Evelyn,  and  Joseph  Spence  were  especially 
affected  by  the  influence  of  Bentley,  but  perhaps  even  more  by  the  so- 
called  classic  revival  in  France,  of  which  we  shall  have  something  to  say 
hereafter.  Worthy  of  mention  for  serious  classical  study  is  Thomas 
Ruddiman  (1674-1757),  a  Scotch  printer  and  bookseller,  who  produced 
a  practical  grammar,  entitled  Rudiments  of  the  Latin  Tongue,  which  went 
through  many  editions,  was  reprinted  in  England,  and  imported  into  the 
American  colonies.  His  more  elaborate  work  —  Grammaticce  Latince 
Inslitiitiones  —  was  excellent  for  its  treatment  of  syntax.  He  also  printed 
the  Latin  works  of  George  Buchanan,  that  truculent  Scotchman  who  had 
assailed  Queen  Mary  in  Latin  verse,  and  had  made  a  metrical  rendering 
of  the  Psalms,  which  brought  him  more  credit  than  he  deserved.  Jere- 
miah Markland,  already  mentioned  as  one  of  Burney's  Pleiad,  was  a 
scholar  of  note,  producing  an  edition  of  the  Silva  of  Statius,  and  showing 


THE    PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  363 

replied  the  Bishop.  "  If  he  only  had  the  gift  of  humility; 
he  would  be  the  most  extraordinary  man  in  Europe." 

Bentley  was  a  Cambridge  man  (St.  John's  College),  and 
took  his  degree  high  among  the  wranglers.  Later  when 
chaplain  to  Bishop  Stillingfleet,  who  had  a  remarkably 
fine  library,  Bentley  read  omnivorously,  sounding  deeply 
the  vast  reaches  of  classic  lore  —  noting  the  nicest  points, 
the  most  delicate  shades  of  meaning,  the  cadences  in  verse, 
and  the  subtler  laws  of  prose.  After  several  minor  writings, 
largely  in  the  shape  of  letters,  giving  privately  much  aid  to 
foreign  and  English  scholars,  he  published,  as  an  appendix 
to  an  edition  of  John  Malalas  of  Antioch,  his  own  now 
celebrated  Letter  to  Mill  (1691).  In  this  letter  he  dealt 
most  acutely  with  the  Attic  Drama,  identifying  Themis, 
Minos,  and  Auleas  of  the  legendary  history,  as  being 
actually  the  historical  dramatists,  Thespis,  Ion  of  Chios, 
and  ^schylus.  He  likewise  discovered  the  metrical  con- 
tinuity {syanphma)  which  exists  in  the  anapaestic  system. 
His  monograph  was  less  than  one  hundred  pages  in  bulk, 
yet  in  it  he  criticised  and  explained  more  than  sixty  authors, 
Greek  and  Latin.  By  this  achievement  he  won  a  reputa- 
tion among  scholars  on  the  Continent,  who  were,  it  must 
be  confessed,  better  able  to  appreciate  him  than  his  own 
clever  classicists  in  Great  Britain. 

critical  ability  in  his  treatment  of  the  Epistles  of  Cicero  to  Brutus,  and 
of  three  plays  of  Euripides.  He  was  familiar  with  the  Continental  learn- 
ing, and  said  of  his  own  work  :  "  Probably  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  this 
sort  of  learning  will  revive  in  England." 


364  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Bentley  had  a  boundless  ambition  in  these  years.  He 
projected  a  collection  of  the  fragments  of  all  the  Greek 
poets,  and  another  of  all  the  Greek  lexicographers.  But 
his  Epistola  ad  Millium  was  alone  sufficient  to  place  him 
at  the  head  of  all  living  English  scholars.  To  quote  Mark 
Pattison:  — 

The  ease  with  which,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  he  restores  passages 
which  had  been  left  in  hopeless  corruption  by  the  editors  of  the 
Chronicle,  the  certainty  of  the  emendation,  and  the  command  over 
the  relevant  material,  are  in  a  style  totally  different  from  the  care- 
ful and  laborious  learning  of  Hody,  Mill,  or  Chilmead.  To  a  small 
circle  of  classical  students  it  was  at  once  apparent  that  there  had 
arisen  in  England  a  critic,  whose  attainments  were  not  to  be  measured 
by  the  ordinary  academical  standard,  but  whom  these  few  pages  had 
sufficed  to  place  by  the  side  of  the  great  Grecians  of  a  former  age. 

Bentley's  only  fault  was  a  pugnacity  and  dogmaticism, 
which  in  after  years  made  him  as  many  enemies  as  his 
learning  and  genuine  benevolence  made  him  friends.  In 
private  life  he  was  charitable  to  a  degree,  and  young 
scholars  found  in  him  an  unfailing  source  of  aid.^  For 
some  years  after  his  Letter  to  Mill,  his  energy  was  extraor- 
dinary, though  it  took  no  shape  in  literary  form.  He 
won  recognition  from  Continental  scholars,  and  became 
librarian  of  the  Royal  Library,  in  which  he  worked  labori- 
ously. The  University  of  Cambridge  asked  him  to  obtain 
fonts  of  Greek  and  Latin  type  for  the  Press;  and  these  he 
had  cast  in  beautiful  form  in  Holland.     He  aided  Evelyn 

» Supra,  p.  351-52. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  365 

in  his  work  on  ancient  coins.  He  corresponded  with  such 
Continental  scholars  as  his  illustrious  contemporary,  F.  A. 
Wolf,  and  supplied  Graevius  with  numerous  suggestions, 
and  especially  an  invaluable  collection  of  the  fragments  of 
Callimachus. 

The  work  by  which  Bentley  is  best  known  —  his  Disser- 
tation on  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris  —  need  not  be  mentioned 
here  at  length.  The  so-called  Epistles  of  Phalaris  have 
already  been  suspected  by  many  as  spurious.  Bentley 
had  promised  to  prove  their  spuriousness,  which  he  did 
in  a  short  paper.  This  paper  was  resented  by  the  Oxford 
editor  of  Phalaris,  the  Hon.  Charles  Boyle.  Boyle  at- 
tacked Bentley,  and  in  so  doing  called  to  his  aid  his 
numerous  friends,  who  saw  in  this  controversy  a  battle 
between  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  who,  therefore,  freely 
lent  Boyle  all  the  assistance  in  their  power.  The  result 
was  a  tract  marked  by  shallow  learning  and  ingenious  soph- 
istry, but  full  of  clever  malice  and  amusing  wit.  These  last 
qualities  made  it  good  reading  even  for  the  unlettered,  and 
it  was  widely  read,  going  almost  at  once  into  a  third  edition. 
Bentley  then  replied  in  his  immortal  Dissertation,  in  which 
he  put  forth  a  part  of  his  gigantic  powers.  In  profound 
scholarship,  as  in  wit,  he  crushed  his  adversary,  so  that  no 
answer  could  possibly  be  given,  nor  was  one  ever  tried. 

Soon  afterward  he  was  nominated  to  the  headship  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  most  splendid  in  its  traditions 
and  in  the  magnificence  of  its  foundation.     It  had,  how- 


366  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PfflLOLOGY 

ever,  in  1700,  become  the  dwelling-place  of  cultivated 
idlers  —  men  who  dined  and  wined  and  cared  little  for  the 
scholar's  life.  To  them  Bentley  came  as  an  unwelcome 
reformer,  riding  roughshod  over  their  traditions  and  their 
tastes.  He  diverted  the  college  funds  to  purely  academic 
uses,  he  introduced  strict  discipline,  and,  in  fact,  as  De 
Quincey  wrote,  "  He  made  Trinity  College  at  once  his 
reward  and  his  scourge  for  the  rest  of  his  life."  This  con- 
test, which  has  been  styled  "The  Thirty  Years'  War," 
would  have  killed  a  less  sturdy  man  than  Bentley.  But 
he  fought  through  it  all  with  the  combative  spirit  that  was 
naturally  his.  More  than  once  it  seemed  as  though  he  must 
go  under  in  the  face  of  an  almost  unanimous  opposition. 
At  one  time  he  was  deprived  of  his  academic  degree,  and 
his  headship  was  taken  from  him;  yet  when  he  died,  he  was 
an  undisputed  victor,  secure  in  the  possession  both  of  his 
degrees  and  of  his  headship  of  Trinity. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  all  of  Bentlcy's  published 
work  represents  the  casual  hours  that  he  could  steal  from 
his  struggle  against  the  enemies  within  his  academic  house- 
hold. This  fact  gives  us  one  more  proof  of  the  man's 
immense  scholarship  and  his  profound  reading,  every 
line  of  which  was  at  the  disposal  of  his  wonderful  memory. 
In  his  books  we  see,  not  the  carefully  finished  work  of  a 
leisured  scholar,  but  the  mere  play  of  a  giant,  whose  mind 
is  really  bent  on  other  things.  This  is  true  of  his  Dis- 
sertation on  Phalaris;  and  it  is  just  as  true  of  his  critical 


THE   PERIOD    or   NATIONALISM  367 

edition  of  Horace  (17 12),  in  his  Terence  (1726),  in  his 
Milton  (1732),  and  in  his  ManiHus  (1739),  and  the  famous 
Critica  Sacra  with  its  notes  on  the  Greek  and  Latin  text 
of  the  New  Testament. 

An  admirable  account  of  Bentley's  work  as  a  critic  will 
be  found  in  Sir  Richard  Jebb's  brilliant  little  monograph, 
published  in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  Series.^  There 
will  be  shown,  with  many  interesting  illustrations,  the 
almost  preternatural  ingenuity  of  Bentley's  mind.  This 
best  showed  itself  in  the  elucidation  of  passages  in  Greek 
and  Latin,  which  had  been  utterly  despaired  of  by  preced- 
ing scholars.  To  throw  a  dazzling  light  into  the  deepest 
darkness  was  Bentley's  forte?  He  arrived  at  his  results 
by  happy  combination  of  vast  reading,  minute  scholarship, 
and  a  gift  for  conjecture  which  few  have  ever  possessed. 
First  of  all  he  was  a  critic,  and  in  a  large  measure  he  was 
the  kind  of  critic  who  relies  largely  upon  what  the  French 
call  le  sentiment  critique  — ■  that  is  to  say,  upon  an  in- 
stinctive knowledge  of  what  the  author  had  in  mind,  and 
of  how  he  would  naturally  express  himself.  Bentley  for- 
mulated this  theory  of  his  in  the  famous  sentence:  Nobis 
et  ratio  et  res  ipsa  centum  codicibus  potiores  sunt? 

It  was  Bentley's  command  of  the  three  instruments  of 
criticism  mentioned  here  that  gave  him  his  sureness  and 

1  London  and  New  York,  last  ed.  1889. 

^  Cf.  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  pp.  139-140,  and  p.  211. 

'  In  his  note  on  Horace,  Carm.  Hi.  27.  13. 


368  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

dexterity.  He  possessed  the  "  critical  sentiment "  in  a 
high  degree,  he  was  a  master  of  his  subject  (res) ,  and  he  was 
famihar  with  the  manuscripts  (codices).  Hence  his  great 
success  in  conjectural  emendation.  He  became  a  new 
leader  in  the  field  of  criticism,  largely  because  he  applied 
to  his  task  each  of  these  three  aids;  and  so  long  as  he  gave 
each  of  them  an  equal  share  in  his  work,  he  remained  un- 
rivalled in  his  chosen  field.  He  leaned,  however,  too  much 
toward  the  instinctive  critical  sentiment,  and  therefore, 
while  his  emendations  often  strike  one  by  their  brilliancy 
and  ingenuity,  they  are  not  convincing.  And  so,  for  ex- 
ample, out  of  the  hundred  or  more  changes  which  he  in- 
troduced into  his  edition  of  Horace,  only  four  or  five  have 
been  accepted  to  take  their  place  in  the  texts  of  modem 
times. 

Hence  Bentley  must  be  regarded  chiefly  as  a  pioneer. 
He  was  the  first  to  point  the  way  toward  truly  scientific 
methods.  Others  have  followed  in  his  steps,  and  have 
passed  beyond  him,  but  their  achievements  are  all  due  to 
Bentley's  inspiration  and  example.  He  serves  also  as  a 
warning;  for  when  he  tried  to  make  criticism  purely  sub- 
jective, he,  with  all  his  powers,  began  to  flounder  in  a  bog 
of  error.  Thus  in  his  edition  of  the  Paradise  Lost,  under- 
taken at  the  request  of  Queen  Caroline,  he  evolved  the 
absurd  notion  that  the  text  as  we  have  it  is  not  the  text 
as  Milton  wrote  it,  but  that  it  had  been  altered  in  places 
by  a  copyist  through  whose  hands  it  had  passed.     There- 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  369 

fore  Bentley  goes  through  the  book,  and  by  an  entirely 
subjective  method,  endeavours  to  restore  it  to  its  original 
form.  The  result  is  both  ludicrous  and  pathetic,  and  may 
serve  as  a  warning  to  those  who  think  that  merely  by  put- 
ting themselves  in  place  of  an  author,  they  can  think  his 
thoughts,  and  rewrite  what  he  wrote.  In  later  years  the 
Swedish  scholars  have  shown  something  of  this  audacity. 
The  French  school  have  held  to  an  intense  conservatism, 
while  the  German  school,  to  which  we  shall  presently  refer, 
learned  from  ^Bentley' s  best  work  the  value  of  correcting 
one  source  by  another,  and  using  the  critical  sentiment 
with  caution. 

Bentley's  emendations  are  dazzling  examples  of  what 
a  combination  of  learning  and  genius  can  effect.  To  him 
also  we  owe  the  discovery  of  the  digamma  in  its  relation  to 
the  prosody  of  Homer,  the  suggestion  for  a  new  and  critical 
revision  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the  flood  of  light  which 
he  throws  upon  the  early  Latin  metres  in  his  introduction 
to  Terence.  It  is  strange  that  not  until  the  nineteenth 
century  was  his  genius  fully  recognised  in  England.  Eng- 
lishmen thought  of  him  mainly  as  the  contentious  Master 
of  Trinity,  —  as  a  quarrelsome,  pugnacious  creature ; 
whereas,  even  in  his  youth,  his  name  was  known  all  over 
the  Continent  as  the  greatest  scholar  of  his  time.  As  late 
as  1833,  Bishop  Monk,  who  wrote  his  life,^  regrets  that  he 

^  See  The  Life  of  Richard  Bentley,  2d  ed.     (London,  1833).    This  book 

2B 


370  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

"wasted  his  time  upon  conjectural  criticism"  instead  of 
turning  his  attention  to  Theology.  But  the  Germans  have 
never  ceased  to  give  him  the  praise  that  is  his  due. 
"  Thus,"  says  Mahly,  "  Bentley  is  not  merely  one  among 
the  great  classical  scholars,  but  he  inaugurates  a  new  era 
in  the  art  of  criticism.  He  opened  a  new  path.  With 
him,  criticism  obtained  its  majority.  When  scholars  had 
hitherto  offered  suggestions  and  conjectures,  Bentley, 
with  unlimited  control  over  the  whole  material  of  learning, 
gave  decisions."  Bunscn  styled  him:  "The  founder  of 
historical  philology."  Jacob  Bemays,  with  rare  enthusiasm, 
wrote:  "  Corruptions  which  had  hitherto  defied  every  at- 
tempt, even  of  the  mightiest,  were  removed  by  a  touch  of 
the  fingers  of  this  British  Samson." 

But  in  the  England  of  his  day,  even  the  most  learned  men 
were  so  far  below  him  as  not  to  appreciate  the  greatness  of 
his  powers.  When  hAS  Dissertation  appeared,  his  opponents 
at  Oxford  were  aware  that  he  had  routed  them;  yet  their 
learning  was  too  slight  to  make  them  understand  how 
utterly  they  were  crushed;  and  as  for  the  British  educated 
public,  it  supposed  for  a  long  time  that  Boyle  was  in  reality 
the  victor.  Thus  when  Bentley  died,  in  his  eightieth  year, 
his  own  countrymen  remembered  him  by  his  long  struggle 
in  Trinity  College.  They  hardly  dreamed  that  in  Richard 
Bentley  England  had  produced  the  richest  intellect,  and 

has  more  to  do  with  Bentley's  quarrels  and  personal  affairs  than  with  his 
work  as  a  critic  and  scholar. 


THE    PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  371 

the  most  remarkable  type  of  scholarship  that  can  be  found 
in  the  annals  of  Classical  Philology  in  Great  Britain.^ 

Contemporary  with  Bentley  and  following  him  are  a 
number  of  learned  men  who  are  chronicled  by  English- 
men, but  who  made  no  great  impression  upon  the  history 
of  European  scholarship,  though  one  of  them,  Richard 
Dawes,^  in  his  emendations  to  the  Greek  dramatists,  was 
followed  in  some  instances  by  Brunck,  and  was  after- 
wards confirmed  by  the  Ravenna  MS.  One  w^ho  is  other 
than  an  Englishman  may  find  it  worth  while  here  to  recall 
Christopher  Pitt,^  who  made  an  excellent  translation  of  the 
Mneid,  and  another  of  Vida's  Art  of  Poetry.  Thomas 
Gray,^  best  known  to  posterity  for  his  Elegy  in  a  Country 
Churchyard,  was  a  writer  of  very  careful  and  delicate 
Latin  poetry ;  while  he  was  mentioned  by  some  as  among 
the  few  Englishmen  of  his  time  who  thoroughly  under- 
stood Plato.     Richard  Hurd^  should  be  mentioned  be- 

^  The  principal  biographies  of  Bentley  are  those  of  Monk,  already 
cited;  Mahly,  Richard  Bentley.  Eine  Biographie  (Leipzig,  1868);  Ber- 
nays,  Philol.  Mus.  viii.  1-24;  Wolf,  Kleine  Schriften,  ii.  1030-1094;  De 
Quincey,  Complete  Works,  vi.  35-180;  Nicoll,  Great  Scholars;  Mark 
Pattison  in  the  EncyclopcEdia  Britannica,  vol.  iii;  and  Jebb,  Bentley, 
2d  ed.  (New  York  and  London,  1899). 

The  works  of  Bentley  were  collected  and  edited  by  Dyce,  3  vols. 
(London,  1836).  Separate  works  have  been  edited  as  follows:  Disserta- 
tion on  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris,  edited  by  W.  Wagner  (Berlin,  1874) ; 
Horace,  edited  by  Zangemeister  (Berlin,  1869) ;  and  Critica  Sacra,  edited 
by  A.  A.  Ellis  (Cambridge  1862). 

"^  1709-1766.  *  1717-1771. 

• 1699-1748.  *  1 720-1808. 


372  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

cause  of  his  aesthetic  commentary  on  the  Ars  Poetica  of 
Horace,  and  the  Epistola  ad  Augustum  which  had  the 
unusual  honour  at  that  time  of  being  translated  into  Ger- 
man. One  cannot  pause  to  dwell  upon  scholars  who  were 
able  and  sometimes  worthy  of  passing  notice  from  their 
Continental  contemporaries.  Perhaps  an  exception  may 
be  made  in  favour  of  Samuel  Musgrave/  a  student  at 
Leyden,  as  well  as  at  Oxford,  who  numbered  among  his 
correspondents  foreigners  of  such  distinction  as  Ruhn- 
ken,  Schweighauser,  and  Emesti.  He  edited  the  whole  of 
Euripedes,  and  twice  visited  Paris  in  order  to  make  a 
careful  collation  of  the  text.  Thomas  Tyrwhitt,  one  of 
the  Pleiad,  was  much  admired  during  his  lifetime,  and 
was  said  to  have  a  knowledge  of  almost  every  European 
tongue.  Certainly  his  literary  taste  was  excellent.  It 
was  he  who  led  the  way  in  detecting  the  famous  forgeries 
of  Chatterton.  He  likewise  edited  Chaucer,  and  criti- 
cised Shakespeare  with  real  acuteness.  In  some  ways  he 
was  a  worthy  follower  of  Bentley's  method,  for  he  dis- 
covered many  traces  of  Babrius  in  the  fables  of  -^sop. 
His  critical  notes  on  many  authors,  and  especially  his 
valuable  edition  of  Aristotle's  Poetics,  with  a  Latin  version, 
gained  him  recognition  from  France  and  Germany.  But 
other  Englishmen  may  be  omitted  from  this  short  list 
until  we  reach  the  name  of  Samuel  Parr.^     Parr  was  essen- 

^ 1732-1780. 

2 1747-1825.     See  Field,  Life  of  Samuel  Parr,  2  vols.  (London,  1828) ; 
and  Nicoll,  op.  cit.  pp.  139-187. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   NATIONALISM  373 

tially  a  Latinist,  and  practised  the  composition  of  Latin 
epitaphs  and  various  inscriptions  which  gave  opportunity 
for  the  cultivation  of  a  stately  style.  He  was  fond  of 
saying  with  regard  to  one  friend  or  another,  "It  is  all  very 
well  to  say  that  So-and-so  is  a  good  scholar,  but  can  he 
write  an  inscription?  "  He  held  that  even  in  Oxford  he 
could  find  but  one  inscription  which  resembles  the  models 
of  antiquity,  while  in  Westminster  Abbey  he  could  not  find 
even  one.  Parr  wrote  a  Latin  preface  to  a  work  of  Bellen- 
den,  and  made  it  so  elaborate  and  so  closely  modelled  on 
Cicero  that  this  preface  was  studied  in  the  schools,  and 
even  in  Cambridge,  as  a  model  of  Latin  prose,  in  this 
respect  resembling  the  Latin  of  Muretus  upon  the  Conti- 
nent. Macaulay^  has  spoken  of  Parr's  vast  treasure  of 
erudition  as  "  too  often  buried  in  the  earth,  too  often 
paraded  with  injudicious  and  inelegant  ostentation,  but 
still  precious,  massive,  and  splendid." 

In  fact,  Parr  was  not  one  who  concentrated  his  powers 
upon  a  single  object.  His  reading  was  remarkably  wide, 
both  in  the  classics  and  in  philosophy,  and  yet  he  always 
failed  of  being  supremely  great.  Looking  over  the  annals 
of  scholarship  in  the  eighteenth  century,  one  finds  between 
Bentley  and  Porson  (whom  we  have  still  to  consider)  less 
that  is  remarkable  in  the  way  of  severe  study  than  in  a 
taste  for  elegant  criticism.  Bendey's  strange  edition  of 
the  Paradise  Lost  was,   in  its  way,  a  piece  of  English 

*  Essays,  p.  642  (London,  1861). 


374  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

exegesis;  and  we  have  noted  some  of  the  various  transla- 
tions, such  as  Pitt's  version  of  the  Mneid,  and  of  Vida's 
Art  of  Poetry.  So  Thomas  Gray  wrote  more  truly  in  a 
vein  of  criticism  than  of  creation,  while  Kurd's  aesthetic 
commentary  is  remarkable  for  its  time,  and  Tyrwhitt's 
exposure  of  Chatterton,  like  his  criticism  of  Shakespeare, 
was  essentially  the  work  of  an  analytic  mind,  which  dealt 
with  comparison  and  the  application  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  art  which  judges  art. 

By  far  the  greatest  English  scholar  after  Bentley  was 
Richard  Person/  the  son  of  a  parish  clerk  in  a  small 
town  in  Norfolkshire.  Person's  personality  was  extremely 
odd.  In  his  prime  he  is  described  as  having  been  nearly 
six  feet  high,  with  a  bulging  forehead,  a  Roman  nose,  and 
an  expressive  mouth,  while  his  countenance  suggested  pro- 
found thought.  Such  is  the  description  of  his,  perhaps, 
partial  friends.  If  he  was  so  impressive  looking  on  cere- 
monious occasions,  he  was  certainly  otherwise  in  his  daily 
life.  His  dress  was  slovenly  and  seemed  to  be  thrown 
upon  him;  his  hands  were  ink-stained,  while  his  snortings 
and  puffings  and  absent-minded  contortions  must  have  re- 
sembled those  which  Macaulay  has  ascribed  to  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson.  Person  was,  likewise,  over-fond  of  drink,  and 
it  is  related  of  him  that  even  at  ofhcial  dinners  he  drank 
to  excess  ;  while  after  the  guests  had  departed  he  would 
walk  about  the  table,  sipping  up  the  dregs  which  remained 

' I 759-1808. 


THE    PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  375 

in  the  glasses  of  the  others.  When  deprived  of  stimu- 
lants, he  had  a  strange  craving  for  such  things  as  soap, 
cologne,  and  ink,  which  he  would  lap  up  with  avidity 
wherever  he  could  find  them. 

His  mental  powers  were,  however,  remarkable.  As  a 
mere  child  he  evinced  a  high  degree  of  memory,  so  that  a 
number  of  gentlemen  provided  him  with  funds  to  enter 
Eton  and  afterward  Trinity  College  in  Cambridge.  There 
he  took  various  honours,  until  he  reached  a  fellowship. 
The  unfailing  generosity  of  his  friends  also  gave  him  an 
annual  income  of  £ioo,  and  he  was  unanimously  elected 
to  the  professorship  in  Greek,  though  the  income  from  this 
chair  was  only  ;£4o.  Two  years  before  his  death  he  was 
made  librarian  of  the  London  Institution.  In  all  the 
various  posts  that  were  held  by  him,  he  studiously  neglected 
his  duties,  but  no  one  called  him  to  account.  He  was 
considered  a  prodigy,  as  much  so  when  he  was  eating 
soap,  as  when  he  was  overthrowing  Gottfried  Hermann 
as  to  nice  points  in  Hellenic  metres. 

Porson  was  naturally  an  indolent  person,  and  yet  he 
accomplished  an  enormous  amount  of  work,  and  did  an 
enormous  amount  of  reading.  There  is  a  tradition  that 
when  he  made  the  journey  by  mail-coach  from  Oxford  to 
London,  he  crammed  the  pockets  of  his  long  top-coat  with 
editions  of  the  various  classics  printed  in  small  type,  and 
by  the  swaying  lamp  of  the  coach,  pored  over  them  with 
painful  assiduity.     Among  the  really  important  results  of 


376  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Poison's  learning  are  (i)  his  restoration  of  the  Greek  in- 
scription on  the  Rosetta  Stone;  (2)  his  critical  edition  of 
four  plays  of  Euripides;  (3)  the  preface  to  the  second 
edition  of  his  Hecuba,  in  which  he  completely  disposed  of 
the  ingenious  theories  of  Hermann;  and  (4)  his  Letters  to 
Travis,  one  of  his  early  works,  yet  very  important,  be- 
cause in  it  he  proved  that  the  passage  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment (i  St.  John  V,  7)  which  speaks  of  the  "  three  that 
bear  witness  in  heaven  "  is  wholly  spurious.  This  opinion 
had  been  held  by  Erasmus,  and  by  many  other  scholars 
down  to  the  time  of  Bentley,  but  it  was  Person  who  first 
made  it  a  certainty. 

Porson^  was  essentially  a  Grecian,  and  his  Latinity  was 
not  so  remarkable  as  that  of  Samuel  Parr;  but  as  a  Hellen- 
ist he  excited  the  admiration  of  Continental  scholars,  with 
whom  he  maintained  a  continual  correspondence,  e.g. 
Ruhnken,  Heyne,  Villoison,  and  Hermann.  In  1808  he 
died,  and  was  buried  in  Trinity  College,  at  the  foot  of  the 
statue  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  A  portrait  of  him  hangs  in  the 
dining  room  of  Trinity  Lodge,  and  another  in  the  Univer- 
sity Library.     If  we  wish  to  see  a  perpetual  and  ever 

*  See  Watson,  Life  of  Richard  Porson  (London,  1861) ;  The  Table 
Talk  of  Samuel  Rogers  (London,  1856) ;  and  Luard,  Cambridge  Essays 
(London,  1857)  ;  also  The  Correspondence  of  Richard  Porson  by  Luard 
(Cambridge,  1866);  Nicoll,  op.  cit.  pp.  91-138,  and  Sandys,  In  Social 
England,  vi.  p.  300  foil.  —  Note  :  The  authenticity  of  the  traditional 
text  on  the  "three  heavenly  witnesses"  was  defended  by  John  Burgess, 
Bishop  of  Salisbury,  but  was  finally  and  absolutely  refuted  by  Dr. 
Turton,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Ely. 


THE   PERIOD   or   NATIONALISM  377 

present  monument  and  memorial  to  him,  we  shall  find  it 
in  the  beautiful  Greek  type  in  which  almost  all  our  modern 
texts  are  printed.  This  was  cast  after  Porson's  death 
from  the  clear  and  elegant  letters  in  which  he  copied  his 
Greek  manuscripts,  and  which  is  now  everywhere  known 
as  the  "  Porsonian  type." 

From  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  until  nearly 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth,  such  renown  as  English 
learning  shed  upon  English  scholarship  was  in  small 
measure  due  to  the  influence  of  the  great  English  univer- 
sities. The  colleges,  both  at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge, 
were  sunken  into  a  sort  of  lethargy.  The  Fellows  en- 
joyed their  stipends  in  their  beautiful  academic  homes, 
not  by  any  means  neglecting  the  routine  reading  of  the 
classics,  but  doing  nothing  for  the  advancement  of  classical 
learning,  and  caring  more  for  the  fine  vintages  of  the 
cellars,  and  the  deep  potations  with  which  they  ended 
every  day,  than  for  plainer  living  and  higher  thinking.  If 
men  of  real  distinction  came  from  among  their  number, 
this  was  in  spite  of  the  university  influence  and  not 
because  of  it.  Thus,  Lord  Chesterfield  spoke  of  the 
"rust"  of  Cambridge;  and  even  West,  the  friend  of 
the  poet  Gray,  writing  to  the  latter,  says :  — 

"Consider  me  very  seriously  here  in  a  strange  country,  in- 
habited by  things  that  call  themselves  Doctors  and  Masters  of 
Arts,  —  a  country  flowing  with  syllogisms  and  ale,  where  Horace 
and  Vergil  are  equally  unknown." 


378  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Gray,  answering  him,  quotes  the  words  of  the  Hebrew 
prophet,  and  insists  that  Isaiah  had  Cambridge  no  less 
than  Babylon  in  view  when  he  spoke  of  wild  beasts  and 
wild  asses,  of  an  inhabitation  of  dragons  and  a  court  for 
owls. 

A  more  serious  indictment  was  that  of  England's  greatest 
historian,  Edward  Gibbon,  uttered  in  stem  and  stately 
language  against  the  University  of  Oxford.  After  giving 
the  particulars  of  his  unprofitable  stay  there,  he  spoke 
the  famous  words  which  have  become  so  widely  known :  — 

"To  the  University  of  Oxford,  I  acknowledge  no  obligation,  and 
she  will  as  readily  renounce  me  for  a  son,  as  I  am  willing  to  dis- 
claim her  for  a  mother.  I  spent  fourteen  months  at  Magdalen 
College;  they  proved  the  most  idle  and  unprofitable  of  my  whole 
life.  The  reader  will  pronounce  between  the  school  and  the 
scholar."^ 

It  is  Edward  Gibbon  who,  thrust  forth  from  Oxford  in 

his  seventeenth  year,  because  he  chose  to  become  a  Catholic, 

wrote  with  all  the  minute  application  and  research  of  an 

accomplished  scholar  the  greatest  existing  history  of  later 

Rome.     From  childhood  he  had  been  remarkable  for  his 

unusual  memory,  which   his  abundant   reading   fed.     It 

was  in  Rome  in  1751  that  the  first  conception  of  his  great 

work  came  to  him.     The  plan  then  formed  was  originally 

limited  to  the  decay  of  the  imperial  city,  but  after  years  of 

reading  and  reflection  it  was  expanded  to  embrace  the 

1  See  Morison,  Gibbon,  pp.  7-10  (New  York,  1879);  and  Lang, 
Oxford,  pp.  199-218  (Philadelphia,  1906). 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  379 

Empire,  as  its  title  {The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire)  shows.  He  began  to  write  this  book  in  1772, 
after  twenty-one  years  of  reading  and  research,  and  pub- 
lished the  first  volume  in  1776.  Two  more  volumes  were 
published  in  1781,  and  the  last  three  volumes  in  1788. 
From  the  moment  of  its  appearance,  it  ranked  as  a  classic 
of  the  classics,  nor  even  to  this  day  has  the  most  searching 
criticism  discovered  an  important  error  in  its  massive 
structure.  The  book,  indeed,  has  been  rightly  called, 
"  one  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  human  thought  and 
erudition.  It  is  in  reality  a  history  of  the  civilised  world 
during  those  thirteen  centuries  when  paganism  was  being 
supplanted  by  Christianity."  New  facts  have  thrown  a 
different  light  upon  some  of  Gibbon's  conclusions;  but 
the  most  critical  scholarship  has  not  altered  the  essential 
truth  of  his  great  panorama.  His  style  gives  point  and 
endurance  to  what  he  writes.  It  has  stateliness  and 
balance  and  a  sort  of  "measured  melancholy"  befitting 
the  author's  theme;  yet  it  would,  perhaps,  have  made  the 
whole  monotonous,  were  it  not  infused  with  a  certain 
piquant  quality  which  led  Byron  to  speak  of  Gibbon  as 
"  the  lord  of  irony."  ^    He  died  in  London  in  1794. 

How  little  tlie  universities  had  to  do  with  the  broader 
field  of   classics,  is  seen  by  the  fact    that  archaeological 

'  The  numerous  editions  of  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  have  all  been 
supplanted  by  that  of  Bury  in  seven  volumes  (London,  1896-1909). 
See  also  Gibbon's  Memoirs,  edited  by  Hill  (London,  1900) ;  and  The 
Letters  of  Gibbon,  edited  by  Prothero  (London,  1896). 


380  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

study  was  carried  on  almost  entirely  outside  their  precincts. 
The  manner  in  which  they  treated  the  Arundel  Marbles  ^ 
is  sufficiently  characteristic.  The  reproach,  however, 
was  not  applicable  to  Englishmen  in  general.  Thus  the 
so-called  Dilettanti  Society,  which  had  been  founded  in 
1733,  produced  some  remarkable  works  for  which  it  found 
the  necessary  funds.  Two  explorers  (James  Stuart  and 
Nicholas  Revett)  furnished  the  material  for  a  work  of 
enduring  value,  known  as  The  Antiquities  of  Athens 
Measured  and  Delineated?  This  book  was  rendered  into 
German,  and  is  still  referred  to  by  the  student  of  archae- 
ology because  its  plates  exhibit  the  earliest  reproductions 
of  the  monuments  at  Athens. 

Nolessvaluableweretheworksof  Robert  Wood  {d.  1771), 
an  inveterate  traveller,  who  brought  accounts  and  drawings 
of  the  ruins  of  Palmyra  and  Heliopolis.  Sir  William 
Hamilton  sent  to  the  British  Society  of  Antiquaries  a 
minute  account  of  the  early  excavations  at  Pompeii.  The 
British  Museum  was  enriched  by  a  splendid  collection  of 
Greek  and  Roman  marbles,  bronzes,  coins,  gems,  vases, 
and  other  antiquities;  while  Richard  Payne  Knight  col- 
lected a  splendid  set  of  antique  bronzes  and  coins,  which 
also  fell  to  the  Museum.  The  travels  of  Sir  William 
Martin  Leake  in  Upper  Egypt  and  in  Turkey  and  Greece 
(1801  and  1804)  both  enriched  the  literature  of  archaeology 

1  Supra,  p.  360. 

*  First  edition,  1762;  second  edition,  1825-1830. 


THE   PERIOD    OF   NATIONALISM  381 

and  added  to  the  immensely  valuable  collections  that  were 
sent  to  England.  In  particular  one  may  mention  his 
Topography  of  Athens  (1821),  Travels  in  the  Morea 
(1830),  Travels  in  Northern  Greece  (1835),  and  Numis- 
matica  Hellenica  (1854).^ 

Hence,  at  a  time  when  Oxford  and  Cambridge  had 
lapsed  into  something  like  an  academic  languor,  so  that 
men  of  real  genius  left  them  and  pursued  their  studies 
independently,  much  was  done  to  stimulate  research  and 
classical  scholarship  by  the  splendid  collections  that  were 
gathered  by  individual  enterprise  and  by  the  generosity 
of  the  Government.  One  of  the  most  magnificent  insti- 
tutions of  learning  in  Great  Britain  was,  and  still  re- 
mains, the  British  Museum  in  London,  which  is  rivalled 
only  by  the  Louvre  in  Paris.^ 

1  See  The  Memoir,  by  Marsden  (London,  1864). 

2  The  British  Museum  had  its  nucleus  in  a  fine  collection  of  books, 
manuscripts,  and  specimens  of  natural  history  gathered  by  Sir  Hans 
Sloane.  In  1753  he  offered  this  to  the  Government  for  £20,000,  though 
it  had  cost  him  more  than  £50,000.  The  money  was  raised  by  a  public 
lottery ;  and  then  the  Sloane  collection  with  the  Harleian  and  Cottonian 
libraries  were  arranged  in  Montague  House,  which  was  purchased  for 
this  object.  The  institution  was  opened  in  1759  under  the  name  of  the 
British  Museum.  New  collections  were  added  continually,  until  in  1823 
the  eastern  wing  of  the  present  building  was  erected,  and  the  whole 
structure  as  it  stands  to-day  was  finished  in  1847.  It  is  impossible  to 
describe  it,  except  to  say  that  it  is  divided  into  various  departments  of 
(i)  Printed  Books;  (2  and  3)  Manuscripts;  (4)  Greek  and  Roman 
Antiquities ;  (5)  Coins  and  Medals ;  (6)  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  Antiq- 
uities; (7)  British  and  Mediaeval  Antiquities;  (8)  Prints  and  Draw- 
ings.    Some  notion  of  the  immensity  of  the  Museum  can  be  inferred 


382  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

The  monuments  of  the  East  beyond  the  domain  of 
Hellas  and  Rome  were  splendidly  exhibited  in  this  struc- 
ture, and  the  travellers  and  explorers  who  had  stimulated 
a  knowledge  of  Archaeology  very  naturally  were  destined 
to  excite  and  increase  the  study  of  language  in  a  new  and 
hitherto  unknown  form.  English  scholarship  heretofore 
had  done  little  or  nothing  to  aid  Philology,  apart  from  the 
comparative  study  of  Greek  and  Latin,  leaving  for  the 
scholars  of  the  Continent  to  speculate  as  to  the  relations 
of  Hebrew  which  was  regarded  as  a  primal  and  original 
tongue;  but  now,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, there  came  an  oriental  scholar  who  was  to  open 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  pages  in  the  study  of  classical 
learning. 

This  was  William  Jones  ^  (afterwards  Sir  William). 
He  was  born  in  London,  and  was  educated  at  Harrow, 
whence  he  was  entered  at  University  College,  Oxford. 
There  he  was  able  to  gratify  his  strong  desire  to  gain  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  oriental  languages.  His  instinc- 
tive orientalism  seems  to  have  been  like  that  of  the  late 
Edward  Henry  Palmer^  in  that,  without  visiting  the  East, 
he  became  versed  in  both  Persian  and  Arabic,  colloquially 
as  well  as  in  the  dialects.     In  1770  he  published,  at  the 

from  the  fact  that  if  the  books  in  the  library  were  placed  on  end  in  book- 
cases eight  feet  high,  they  would  extend  to  a  distance  of  more  than  three 
miles. 

1  1 746-1 794. 

2  Edward  Henry  Palmer,  by  Walter  Besant  (London,  1883). 


THE   PERIOD    OF    NATIONALISM  383 

request  of  the  king  of  Denmark,  A  Life  of  Nadir  Shah, 
translated  into  the  French  from  the  Persian;    in  the  next 
year,  A  Persian  Grammar  (1772);    and  in  1780  he  trans- 
lated the  seven  exquisite  poems,  known  to  the  Arabs  as 
the  Mdallakat.     Sir  William,  like  Hugo  Grotius,  was  as 
remarkable  in  law  as  in  literature.     He  wrote  a  number 
of  legal  essays,  so  that  in  1783  he  was  knighted  and  made 
a  judge  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature  in  Bengal. 
His  delight  at  finding  himself  amidst  everything  that  was 
oriental  showed  itself  in  many  ways.      He  established  the 
Royal  Asiatic  Society,  to  whose  volumes  he  contributed 
largely,   and  of  which  he  was   the  first  President.     He 
published    the    translation    of    a  story    in   verse,   called 
The  Hindu  Wife,   and  finally  an  English  rendering   of 
the  ancient  work,  now  well  [known    to  Sanskrit  scholars, 
Sakuntala,  or  the  Fatal    Ring  (1789).     This    aroused   a 
wide  interest  throughout  Europe,  and   led   to  a  general 
discussion  of  Hindu  literature.     Jones  was  engaged  in  a 
digest  of  the  Hindu  and  Mohammedan  laws  at  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1794. 

He  was  one  of  the  most  noted  linguists  and  oriental 
scholars  that  England  has  ever  produced;^  one  passage 
penned  by  him  in  the  first  volume  of  Asiatic  Researches,^ 
after  he    had    given   what   one    may  call    only   a    slight 

*  See  The  Life  of  Sir  William  Jones  by  Lord  Teignmouth  (London, 
1807). 

^  Asiatic  Researches,  i.  442  (1786). 


384  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

glimpse  of  Sanskrit,  is  memorable  in  the  history  of  lin- 
guistics :  — 

"The  Sanskrit  language,  whatever  may  be  its  antiquity,  is  of  a 
wonderful  structure ;  more  perfect  than  the  Greek,  more  copious 
than  the  Latin,  and  more  exquisitely  refined  than  either,  yet  bear- 
ing to  both  of  them  a  stronger  affinity,  both  in  the  roots  of  verbs 
and  in  the  forms  of  grammar,  than  could  have  been  produced  by 
accident ;  so  strong  that  no  philologer  could  examine  the  Sanskrit, 
Greek,  and  Latin,  without  believing  them  to  have  been  sprung  from 
some  common  source,  which,  perhaps,  no  longer  exists.  There  is  a 
similar  reason,  though  not  quite  so  forcible,  for  supposing  that  both 
the  Gothic  and  Celtic  had  the  same  origin  with  the  Sanskrit.  The 
Old  Persian  may  be  added  to  the  same  family."  ^ 

1  Though  Sir  William  Jones  rightly  pointed  out  the  peculiar  similarity 
between  Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin,  and  Old  Persian,  we  must  remember 
that  something  had  been  done  before  his  time  to  help  the  progress  of  this 
discovery.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Arabs  introduced  some  knowledge 
of  the  Hindu  science,  and  the  so-called  Arabic  (Hindu)  numerals.  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  Portuguese,  Dutch,  English,  and  French  obtained 
a  foothold  in  India.  They  sought  there,  however,  only  merchandise 
and  precious  stones,  though  some  knowledge  of  Sanskrit  was  gathered 
by  missionaries,  and  one  of  them  even  translated  a  Sanskrit  poet  into 
Dutch  as  early  as  1651.  The  first  Sanskrit  grammar  to  be  issued  in 
Europe  was  compiled  by  Father  Pauhnus,  who  had  it  printed  in  Rome 
in  1 790,  only  a  few  years  before  Jones's  death  ;  but  the  real  mediator  be- 
tween India  and  Europe  were  men  of  letters,  like  Charies  Wilkens,  H.  F. 
Colebrooke,  and  H.  H.  Wilson.  In  Germany,  their  translations  were 
admired  intensely  by  men  like  Goethe,  Herder,  the  two  Schlegers,  and 
after  them  those  who  found  in  Hindu  literature  something  more  interest- 
ing to  them  even  than  its  lyrics,  its  remarkable  epics,  and  its  very  strik- 
ing drama.  See  Frazer,  A  Literary  History  of  India  (New  York,  1904) ; 
Macdonell,  A  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature,  with  bibliographical  notes 
(New  York,  1900)  ;  Biihler  and  Kielhorn,  Grundriss  der  indoarischen 
Philologie    (Strassburg,    1896   foil.). 


X 

THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE 

Where  shall  we  look  for  those  early  schools  in  which 
there  were  gathered  together  wandering  scholars  who  yielded 
the  first  fruits  of  the  early  universities?  We  have  already 
mentioned  the  revival  of  learning  promoted  by  Charles  the 
Great  with  the  aid  of  Alcuin/  His  successor,  Louis  the 
Pious,  who  "  knew  Latin  and  understood  Greek,"  let  learning 
lapse;  and  later  the  monastic  school  at  Tours  was  of  slight 
importance,  although  in  it  an  Irish  monk  composed  a  Latin 
grammar,  Charles  the  Bald,  the  son  of  Louis,  was  king  of 
France  from  840  to  876,  and  Emperor  of  the  West.  At  the 
head  of  the  school  set  up  by  him  he  placed  the  most  noted 
philosopher  of  the  early  Middle  Ages,  John  the  Scot  (or 
Duns  Scotus),  and  he  invited  teachers  from  Ireland  and 
even  from  Greece.  At  Fulda  a  school  founded  by  Boniface 
was  famous  for  the  labours  of  those  whom  Alcuin  taught. 
Among  them  was  the  German,  Rabanus  Maurus,  born  at 
Mainz,  Servatus  Lupus,  and  Walafrid  Strabo.  It  was 
Rabanus  (or  Hrabanus)  who  founded  the  library  at  Fulda 
and  then  retired  to  a  lonely  hill,  where  he  composed  a  great 
many  encyclopaedic  works  and  several  treatises  on  educa- 

^  Supra,  pp.  219-229. 
2C  38s 


386  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

ti'on.  He  introduced  Priscian's  grammar  into  the  schools 
of  Germany,  besides  a  short  tract  on  alphabets  and 
abbreviations. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  many  fragments  of  classic  literature 
were  read  and  studied,  and  some  of  them  much  more  fully 
than  we  should  have  supposed.  The  historians  (Caesar, 
Sallust,  Livy,  Suetonius,  and  Florus)  were  very  familiar, 
and  Valerius  Maximus  was  popular  because  he  abounded  in 
historical  anecdotes.  Germany  was  not  so  well  supplied 
with  books  as  were  France  and  Italy.  Nevertheless,  one 
cannot  be  very  precise  upon  this  point.  For  instance,  Pliny 
the  Elder's  Historia  Naturalis  is  catalogued  nine  times  in 
France  and  in  Germany,  and  only  twice  in  Italy  and  Eng- 
land. On  the  other  hand,  the  younger  Pliny  is  mentioned 
only  twice  in  the  book-lists  of  Germany,  while  his  letters 
are  quoted  once  by  a  scholar  in  Verona.  There  are  more 
traces  of  Tacitus  in  Germany  than  elsewhere.^ 

Petrarch,  who  knew  something  of  the  North,  regarded  the 
Germans  of  Austria  as  by  no  means  strangers  and  incuUi. 
Thus  when  the  German  Emperor,  Charles  IV,  became  head 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire^  and  showed  himself  a  generous 
patron  of  literature,  the  Italian  poet  hailed  him  as  a  new 
Augustus,  a  sincere  friend  of  all  the  arts.     Petrarch  corre- 

1  An  elaborate  account  of  the  preservation  of  the  Latin  classics  in  the 
monasteries  of  the  East,  arranged  in  a  very  careful  way,  will  be  found 
in  a  number  of  works  and  monographs  such  as  West,  in  Proc.  Amer. 
Phil.  Assoc,  1902,  xxii  foil. ;  Wattenbach,  Schriftwesen  im  Mittelalter 
(Berlin,  1871),  etc.  2 1346. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  387 

sponded  with  the  Emperor,  from  1350  to  1356,  when  he 
was  sent  to  the  Emperor's  capital  at  Prague,^  then  supposed 
by  the  Italians  to  be  '  the  extreme  confines  of  the  land  of  the 
barbarians.'  Before  this  time  he  had  given  the  Emperor  an 
efiigy  decorated  with  gold  and  silver  coins  of  ancient  Rome, 
showing  the  images  of  his  great  predecessors.  Arrian's  ac- 
count of  Alexander  in  easy  Latin  verse  was  taken  to  Vienna 
(1442-1455).  iEneas  Silvius  wrote  (1450)  a  Latin  treatise 
on  education  for  the  benefit  of  his  imperial  master. 

When  ^neas  was  made  Pope  in  1459,  his  former  pupil, 
Hinderbach,  who  was  fond  of  him,  promised  on  behalf  of 
Germany  that  this  country  should  continue  to  cultivate  the 
humanism  of  which  the  new  Pope  had  been  so  admirable 
an  example.  Classics  were,  therefore,  soon  taught  by  him 
(1460-1469) ;  and  he  also  lectured  in  Vienna,  not  only  on 
mathematics  but  astronomy.  His  pupil,  Johann  Muller, 
of  Konigsberg,  best  known  as  Regiomontanus,  lectured  on 
Vergil,  Terence,  and  Cicero's  De  Senectute.  A  number  of 
classicists  and  also  astronomers  now  spread  throughout 
Germany,  establishing  rude  schools  where  lectures  were 
regularly  given  and  where  editions  and  translations  of 
Greek  and  Latin  works  were  put  into  circulation.  It  is 
interesting  that  at  Ratisbon  the  calendar  was  so  studied  as 
to  lead  to  a  proposal  for  its  correction.  Because  of  this 
the  Archbishop  was  summoned  to  Rome,  where  he  died.^ 
Let  us  trace  briefly  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  greater 

1 1356.  » 1476. 


388  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

German  universities.  It  came  partly  from  Paris  and  partly 
from  the  influence  of  Italian  universities,  especially  Bo- 
logna.^ The  earliest  of  them  was  at  Prague  (1348),  and  the 
next  the  University  of  Vienna  (1365).  Paulsen  says  that 
both  of  these  were  on  the  eastern  borderland  of  German 
civilisation  in  that  Paris  was  near  enough  for  Western  Ger- 
many, and  because  between  the  old  church  schools,  such  as 
Cologne,  a  close  connection  was  kept  up.  In  the  same 
century  (1385)  the  Westerns  founded  the  University  of 
Heidelberg  (1385)  and  the  University  of  Erfurt.  Five 
of  these  remain  at  the  present  day;  Cologne  having  been 
closed  in  1794  and  Erfurt  in  1816.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  it  was  Austria  and  the  parts  of  Germany  which 
bordered  on  Italy  that  receive  more  directly  the  fruits  of 
French  and  Italian  culture.  Though  rude  and  touched 
with  the  semi-orientalism  of  Byzantium,  Austria  was  at 
least  more  civilised  than  the  barbaric  North.  All  this  is 
prior  to  the  Renaissance,  and  these  universities  were  the 
homes  of  scholasticism.  A  second  period  of  great  activity 
opens  with  the  humanistic  movement.  Such  doctors  as 
Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Duns  Scotus 
had  taught  and  argued  in  many  of  these  schools.  Then 
came  the  Hussite  schism  which  lost  Prague  to  Germany. 
In  its  place  the  University  of  Leipzig  was  founded  (1409). 
Rostock  opened  its  halls  (141 9)  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
Baltic  countries. 

1  Originally  devoted  solely  to  the  study  of  law. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  389 

The  humanistic  movement  naturally  called  into  being 
fresh  seats  of  learning.  Of  these  there  were  nine  German 
universities/  of  which  four  (Greifswald,  Freiburg,  Basle, 
and  Tubingen)  still  continue  to  exist.  It  is  characteristic 
of  the  German  mind  that  the  universities  in  Austrian  Ger- 
many did  not  arise  gradually  like  the  older  ones  in  France 
and  Italy.  They  were  established  after  a  scheme  already 
in  operation,  both  the  spiritual  and  temporal  power  con- 
tributing to  their  foundation.  It  was  the  Pope  who  founded 
the  institution,  and  gave  it  the  privilege  of  bestowing  de- 
grees; while  its  continued  existence  was  assured  by  the  local 
sovereign,  who  provided  the  revenues  and  granted  to  the 
university  temporal  and  corporate  privileges.  Thus  we 
see  that  the  German  notion  of  a  higher  seat  of  learning 
was  one  that  had  been  mapped  out  in  advance,  with  a  defi- 
nite purpose  and  a  somewhat  cut-and-dried  academic 
ideal.  The  triple  division  of  scholaris,  baccalaureus,  and 
magister  is,  as  Professor  Paulsen  says,  "  evidently  identi- 
cal with  that  of  apprentice,  journeyman,  and  master  work- 
man, which  we  find  among  the  mediaeval  artisans."  * 
Thus  the  historical  development  of  German  universities 
went  on,  though  with  alterations  in  their  character  con- 
cerning which  we  shall  briefly  speak.     For  a  long  time  a 

1  Greifswald  (1456),  Freiburg  (1457),  Basle  (1460),  Ingolstadt  (1472), 
Treves  (1473),  Mainz  and  Tiibingen  (1477),  Wittenberg  (1502),  and 
Frankfiirt-on-the-Oder  (1506). 

2  See  Paulsen,  The  German  Universities,  Eng.  trans,  by  E.  D.  Perry 
(New  York,  1895). 


390  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

university  might  be  a  great  seat  of  learning,  or  it  might  be 
only  a  humble  school  with  a  small  foundation,  destined  to 
be  swept  away  in  a  few  years.  It  may  be  convenient  for 
reference  to  name  the  universities  in  Germany  and  Austro- 
Hungary  which  exist  to-day,^  and  to  say  a  word  or  two  con- 

1  In  Germany  to-day  there  are  twenty-one  universities,  the  largest 
being  Berlin  (with  about  5800  students),  Munich  and  Leipzig,  Bonn, 
Breslau,  Freiburg,  Halle,  Tubingen,  Heidelberg,  Gottingen,  Marburg, 
Strassburg,  Wiirzburg,  Kiel,  Konigsberg,  Erlangen,  Giessen,  Greifswald, 
Miinster,  Jena,  Rostok.  At  Freiburg,  Munich,  Miinster,  and  Wiirzburg 
the  faculties  of  theology  are  Catholic ;  at  Bonn,  Breslau,  and  Tubingen 
they  are  mixed  Catholic  and  Protestant;  while  the  faculties  at  all  the 
other  universities  are  Protestant.  It  might  as  well  be  added  that  the 
universities  of  Austria-Hungary  number  seven  —  Vienna,  Gratz,  Inns- 
bruck, Pesth,  Breslau,  Cracow,  and  Limberg. 

Of  the  distinguished  men  who  first  made  German  learning  illustrious  — 
omitting  those  of  whom  we  shall  speak  above  —  are  Peter  Luder  (c.  1450), 
who  matriculated  at  Heidelberg  before  he  visited  Rome.  Later  he 
returned  to  his  German  academic  home  and  lectured  on  the  Latin  poets 
(1456).  This  was  such  an  innovation  that  his  older  colleagues  did  every- 
thing possible  to  hinder  him  in  his  work,  so  that  when  the  plague  afflicted 
Heidelberg,  Luder  lectured  with  much  applause  at  Ulm,  Erfurth,  and 
Leipzig.  One  of  his  most  ardent  pupils  at  Leipzig  was  Hartman  Schedel 
( 1 440-1 5 1 4),  who  became  known  as  a  collector  of  humanistic  literature. 
It  was  he  who  preserved  a  great  part  of  the  journal  of  Ciriaco  d'Ancona 
(see  supra,  p.  268)  with  copies  of  monuments  and  inscriptions.  His  own 
collection  is  now  in  the  library  at  Munich,  and  his  work  on  the  history 
of  the  world  from  the  Creation  to  the  year  1492  is  everywhere  known  as 
the  "Nuremberg  Chronicle."  His  sketches  of  ancient  monuments  are 
said  to  have  inspired  some  of  the  drawings  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  now 
in  Vienna.  Schedel  was,  therefore,  an  important  figure  in  the  human- 
istic period  of  German  scholarship.  Another  leading  humanist  who 
deserves  especial  mention  was  the  Frisian  who  is  best  known  by  his 
Latinised   name   Rudolphus    Agricola    (1444-1485).      His   mental   and 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  39I 

ceming  their  characteristics.  In  the  earliest  days  of  Ger- 
man scholarship  the  universities  were  essentially  scholastic. 

physical  activity  is  shown  by  his  interest  in  travel  and  observation ;  for 
he  was  educated  at  four  German  universities  and,  perhaps,  at  Paris. 
He  then  journeyed  to  Italy,  studying  at  Pavia  and  at  Ferrara,  where  he 
was  a  student  of  Greek  under  Theodorus  Gaza.  After  so  much  activity 
he  appears  to  have  dropped  to  a  rather  humble  station  in  his  native  city 
of  Groningen,  where  he  was  town  clerk  for  four  years.  However,  during 
this  time  he  acted  as  a  town-envoy,  and  often  visited  Deventer,  where 
he  met  Erasmus.  Later  he  taught  at  Heidelberg,  lecturing  on  Aris- 
totle, and  translating  selections  from  Lucian.  Humanists  in  Germany 
looked  to  him  as  their  leader.  Like  Erasmus  he  was  very  influential  in 
his  private  and  personal  associations,  though  his  scholarship  was  some- 
what overrated.  He  wrote  a  treatise  on  education  which  appeared  in 
the  same  volume  as  like  works  by  Erasmus  and  Melanchthon,  an  honour 
which  it  did  not  deserve.  He  had,  however,  the  truly  humanistic  spirit, 
and  urged  carefulness  in  reading,  practice  of  the  memory,  cheerful 
alacrity,  and  a  quiet  but  earnest  opposition  to  the  stiffness  of  scholas- 
ticism. Alexander  Hegius  (1433-1498),  who  was  a  teacher  of  Erasmus, 
made  Deventer  a  great  humanistic  centre  of  Northern  Germany.  He 
mocked  at  the  old  mediaeval  text-books,  and  pointed  back  to  the  Latin 
Classics  as  the  true  source  of  a  perfect  Latin  style.  There  follows  him, 
Rudolf  von  Langen  (1438-1519),  who  studied  at  Erfurt,  visited  Italy, 
and  finally  founded  a  great  humanistic  school  at  Miinster.  Another 
famous  school  was  that  of  Jacob  Wimpheling  (1450-1528)  at  Schlett- 
stadt  in  Alsace,  which  was  the  third  of  the  schools  of  Germany.  Later, 
at  Strassburg  to  which  he  migrated,  he  founded  a  literary  {i.e.  humanistic) 
group  which  followed  the  teachings  of  Erasmus.  He  was  the  friend  of 
Sebastian  Brant,  well  known  in  English  literature  as  the  author  of  the 
Ship  of  Fools  (1494)-  Conrad  Celtes  (1459-1518)  is  rightly  called  by 
Dr.  Sandys  "the  knight-errant  of  humanism  in  Germany."  His  early 
years  were  unfavourable,  but  after  spending  some  time  under  Agricola 
at  Heidelberg  and  learning  a  little  Greek,  he  made  his  way  into  Italy, 
living  with  the^  most  cultivated  Italians  at  Padua  and  Ferrara,  and  in 
Rome.    When  he  returned,  he  received  the  poet's  crown  from  Fried- 


392  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

From  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  humanistic  in- 
fluence came  in  strongly,  especially  with  those  men  whom  we 
have  already  mentioned.  Subsequently  arrived  a  period  of 
partial  reaction,  owing  to  the  influence  of  Martin  Luther 

rich  III  at  Nuremberg.     Celtes  was  the  first  German  to  v.in  this  honour. 
Immediately  afterward  he  founded  humanistic  societies  in  rapid  succes- 
sion in  Poland  and  Hungary,  and  along  the  Rhine.     The  last  (at  Mainz) 
was  a  very  famous  group.     Its  first  president  was  the  Maecenas  of  the 
time,  Johann  von  Dalberg,  and  among  its  members  were  the  two  Greek 
and  Hebrew  scholars,  Trithemius  and  Wilibalc  Pirkheimer.     Johannes 
Trithemius  was  a  great  collector  of  manuscripts,  and  is  still  remembered 
for  his  learning.    Celtes,  also  a  member  of  this  group,  was  later  called 
to  be  the  head  of  the  Imperial  Library  in  Vienna.     He  travelled  a  great 
deal  throughout  Germany,  and  described  his  adventures  in  a  collec- 
tion of  Latin  poems,  many  of  which  do  not  tend  to  edification,  but 
suggest  the  semi-pagan  spirit  of  the  early  Renaissance.      He  is  best 
remembered  to-day  for  a  discovery  which  he  made  in  the  Vienna  Library 
of  a  thirteenth-century  copy  of  a  Roman  map  {ilinerarium).     The  origi- 
nal was  as  early  as  the  third  century,  and  is  of  great  interest,  although  a 
part  is  missing.     This  map  Celtes  bequeathed  to  a  rich  patron  of  learn- 
ing, one  Conrad  Peutinger  of  Augsburg,  from  whom  it  gets  its  familiar 
name  Tabula  Peulingeriana.    This  copy  was  painted  at  Kolmar  after 
the  model  of  an  original  map,  which  consisted  of  twelve  broad  strips  of 
parchment  showing  all  those  parts  of  the  world  that  were  known  to 
the  Romans.     The  pieces  which  should  contain  Spain  and  Britain  are 
lost,  with  the  exception  of  the  southeast  corner  of  Britain  (Kent).     It 
is  disproportionately  lengthened  from  east  to  west,  the  ratio  of  its  height 
to  its  breadth  being  1:21.     The  distances  from  town  to  town  are  marked 
on  lines  running  from  east  to  west.     The  relative  sizes  of  the  towns  are 
indicated  by  distinctive  marks.     Those  who  are  interested  in  this  very 
early  map  can  iind  it  in  the  little  Atlas  Antiquus  of  Justus  Perthes 
(Gotha,  1893).  —  On  all  that  proceeds,  see  Lernen  und  Forschen  (Berlin, 
1892) ;    Pearson,  Ethic  of  Frecthoiight  (1901) ;    Janssen,  A   History  of 
the   German  People,   Eng.   trans.,  i.   63-80   (London,   1891) ;    Bursian, 
Geschichte  der  klass.  Philologie  in  Deutschland,  etc.  (Munich,  1883). 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  393 

(d.  1546),  who  introduced  a  purely  ecclesiastical  mode  of 
learning,  but  it  was  checked  by  the  great  scholars  who  pre- 
ceded F.  A.  Wolf  (1739).  If  we  prepare  a  scheme  of  Ger- 
man scholarship  from  Luder  down  to  Bopp,^  it  will  stand 
somewhat  as  follows:  introducing  not  only  Criticism  and 
Hermeneutics,  but  Archaeology,  including  History,  Gram- 
mar, Religion,  Geography,  Chronology,  Metrology,  Nu- 
mismatics, and  Epigraphy. 

I.  Ecclesiastical  Period  (1400  to  c.  1415). 
11.  Humanistic  Period  (c.  141 5  to  c.  1660). 

III.  Ante-Wolfian  Period  (c.  1660  to  c.  1739). 

IV.  Wolfian  Period  (c.  1739  to  c.  1810). 

V.  Post- Wolfian  Period  (c.  1810  to  c.  1870). 
After  1870,  as  will  be  seen,  German  scholarship  was  no 
longer  isolated,  but  belonged  to  the  cosmopolitan  creative 
study  of  all  the  western  world.  There  are  many  different 
ways  of  subdividing  these  periods  of  German  learning.  Al- 
most all  scholars  agree  in  speaking  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Period.  Almost  all  of  them  will  speak  of  the  Humanistic 
Period.  After  that,  there  are  other  divisions  in  terminology. 
Thus  we  shall  hear  of  the  Grammatico-critical  School, 
of  the  Historico-antiquarian  School,  and  finally  of  the 
Junggrammatiker,  until  the  scholarship  that  is  purely  Ger- 
man ceases  to  exist  as  an  isolated  phenomenon.  Ger- 
many first  teaches  all  the  world,  and  then  learns  from  all 
the  world,  until  at  last  the  divisions  of  learning  cease  to  be 

1  That  is  to  say,  from  about  1451  through  1867. 


394  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

National,  and  become  wholly  Cosmopolitan.  The  Eccle- 
siastical Period  has  already  been  sufficiently  described  in  the 
preceding  pages,  and  so  has  the  spirit  of  the  early  Renais- 
sance. 

One  should  speak  more  fully  of  the  first  great  Grecian 
to  arise  in  Germany,  in  the  person  of  Johann  Reuchlin,i 
who  studied  at  Paris  and  at  Basle,  —  at  the  latter  school 
under  a  native  Greek.  It  was  there  that  he  wrote  a  Latin 
dictionary,  entitled :  Vocahularius  Breviloquus,  an  excellent 
work  which  was  preferable  to  its  predecessors  in  the  clear- 
ness of  its  arrangement,  and  which  was  the  more  remarkable 
from  the  fact  that  he  was  only  twenty  years  of  age  when  the 
book  was  finished.  After  some  further  study,  he  taught  both 
Greek  and  Latin  at  Orleans  and  Poitiers.  He  describes 
Greek  as  "  necessary  for  a  liberal  education;  for  it  leads  us 
back  to  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  which  cannot  really 
be  comprehended  until  its  language  is  understood."  Later, 
in  Rome,  he  met  Argyropulos,  who  was  surprised  at  Reuch- 
lin's  command  of  Greek.  Later  still  he  learned  Hebrew, 
and  thencefonvard  pursued  the  study  of  it  as  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  life.  For  the  last  year  of  his  existence  he 
w^as  professor  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  at  Tubingen. 

The  fact  that  Reuchlin  urged  the  study  of  Hebrew  was 
distasteful  to  the  bigots  of  the  day.  They  preferred  dog- 
Latin  and  still  more  barbarous  Greek  to  a  language  which 
they  regarded  as  almost  impious  to  learn.     Reuchlin  was, 

^ 1455-1522. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  395 

therefore,  abused  and  assailed  for  a  long  while,  until  the 
enlightened  humanists  of  the  day  came  to  his  defence. 
They  believed  that  anything  and  everything  should  be 
studied,  and  they  fell  upon  Reuchlin's  enemies  like  a  band 
of  light  horse.  These  witty  and  nimble-minded  scholars 
came  to  the  defence  in  the  once  famous  satire  called  Epis- 
tolcE  Ohscurorum  Virorum  (15 16-15 17).  The  first  book 
of  the  EpistolcB  was  largely  composed  by  a  humanist 
named  Johann  Jager,  while  the  second  was  mainly  the  work 
of  the  famous  writer,  Ulrich  von  Hutten;  and  the  quiet, 
deeply  learned  leader  of  this  band  was  Conrad  Muth 
(Mutianus  Rufus),  who  had  been  at  school  with  Erasmus, 
and  with  him  had  felt  the  earnest  inspiration  of  early  hu- 
manism. Returning  to  Germany,  he  made  his  canonical 
residence  at  Gotha,  and  over  the  door  he  set  in  golden 
letters  the  words :  Beata  Tranquillitas.  There  he  lived  as 
a  lover  of  all  that  is  beautiful  in  literature.  It  was  a  strange 
fate  that  he  should  have  survived  to  see  his  home  plun- 
dered by  a  Protestant  mob  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
For  Protestantism  had  broken  in  upon  the  mild  and  gen- 
ial humanistic  learning,  especially  in  Germany,  where  the 
followers  of  Luther  were  savage  in  their  assault  upon  what- 
ever was  refined  and  beautiful.  The  humanists  saw  that  they 
had  more  to  fear  from  the  stark  ignorance  of  the  Protestants 
than  from  the  occasional  intolerance  of  the  Catholics.  Not 
long,  however,  did  this  Lutheran  riot  continue.  The  inven- 
tion of  the  printing-press  and  the  setting  up  of  printing- 


396  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

presses  all  over  Europe  did  much  to  beat  back  Protestant- 
ism of  the  radical  sort,  and  to  bring  again  the  more  graceful 
attitude  of  the  classicists.  The  desecration  of  cathedrals 
with  their  beautifully  painted  windows,  the  pillaging  of  art 
galleries,  the  smashing  of  the  most  exquisite  statuary, — 
these  atrocities  did  not  continue  for  very  long.  With  the 
multiplication  of  printing-presses  a  love  for  classical  learn- 
ing returned,  and  before  the  end  of  this  period  (1660)  the 
modem  languages  had  begun  to  exercise  an  influence  which 
classicists  deplored,  but  which  was  in  reality  a  humanistic 
trait.  Among  the  greater  humanists  of  Germany  was 
Hslius  Eobanus  Hessus,^  who  lectured  to  enormous  audiences 
on  poetry  and  rhetoric.  Of  his  pupils  was  the  famous 
Camerarius,^  who  formed  one  of  the  interesting  group  who 
clustered  around  the  press  of  Froben  at  Basle.  He  is  chiefly 
noted  for  his  criticism  of  Roman  chronology.'  Among 
his  friends  at  Basle  were  Beatus  Renanus,*  the  associate 
and  biographer  of  Erasmus,  and  well  Icnown  for  his  editio 
princeps  of  Vellcius  Paterculus,  and  his  work  on  the  text 
of  Tacitus;  Clareanus,  who  held  the  professorship  of  poetry; 
Grygenus  of  Heidelberg,  famous  for  discovering  a  manu- 
script of  the  first  five  books  of  the  fifth  decade  of  Livy; 
and  finally  Galcnius  of  Prague,  who  produced  editions  of 
Callimachus  and  Aristophanes,  as  well  as  of  the  Planudean 

*  1488-1540.  *  1500-1574.     Really  Kammermann. 

*  See  Bursian,  op.  cit.,  i.  154  foil. 

*  See  his  life  by  Horawitz  (187 2-1 874). 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  397 

Anthology.  Many  minor  scholars  helped  to  give  distinc- 
tion to  Basle,  partly  by  residing  there,  and  partly  by  accept- 
ing professorships  for  short  periods  in  French  and  German 
universities.  In  this  way  they  scattered  the  rich  seed  of 
classical  learning  and  of  liberal  education. 

The  great  educator  whom  Germany  remembers  best  to- 
day by  the  name  of  "  The  Preceptor  "  was  Philip  Schwarz- 
erd,  better  known  to  us  and  to  the  world  at  large  as  Me- 
lanchthon.'  Though  a  friend  of  Luther,  he  could  not  be 
in  thorough  sympathy  with  that  boisterous,  unruly  spirit, 
but  was  instead  a  classical  scholar  of  great  diligence.  Ger- 
many to-day  feels  the  influence  of  Melanchthon  in  its 
severe  training  in  grammar  and  style.  Melanchthon 
wrote  grammars  of  Greek  and  Latin  and  a  large  number  of 
classical  text-books.  The  works  that  he  composed  in  Latin, 
especially  his  Latin  Letters,  are  written  in  a  style  that  is 
clear  and  simple,  though  without  distinction.  He  was  a 
Lutheran  in  his  dislike  for  the  paganism  of  Italy;  in  fact, 
he  was  essentially  a  German  philologist  and  not  an  Italian 
classicist  or  a  French  one. 

Johann  Sturm  of  Strassburg  was  another  important  name 
in  the  educational  development  of  early  Germany.^    He 

1  1497-1560.  There  is  an  excellent  biography  of  ]\Ielanchthon  by 
Hartfelder,  in  Woodward's  Renaissance  Education;  while  he  is  criticised 
by  Pearson  in  his  Ethic  of  Freethoiight,  already  quoted.  A  biography  in 
English  by  T.  B.  Saunders  has  been  announced  for  publication. 

^  1507-1580.  Other  educators  who  were  contemporaries  of  Sturm 
were  Rivius,  who  corrected  many  passages  in  Sallust ;  Michael  Neander, 


398  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

was  head-master  of  the  school  at  Strassburg  for  forty-three 

years,  and  made  the  chief  work  of  his  scholars  the  writing 

and  the  speaking  of  Latin,  for  this  seemed  to  him  the  whole 

of  education.     Pupils  from  all  countries  came  to  visit  him, 

and  his  school  became  a  sort  of  model  for  most  German 

gymnasia.    It  happened  that  Roger  Ascham,  who  never  met 

him,  was  a  correspondent  of  his  and  once  wrote  to  him :  — 

"For  our  time  the  odde  man  to  perform  all  three  perfitlie,  what- 
soever he  doth,  and  to  know  the  way  to  do  them  skilfullie,  whan 
so  ever  he  L'st,  is  in  my  poore  opinion,  Joannes  Sturmus." 

A  work  written  by  Conrad  Gesncr,  just  mentioned,  was 
a  somewhat  remarkable  attempt  at  achieving  what  many 
were  at  that  time  studying  and  discussing  with  great  inter- 
est. This  was  a  book  known  as  Mithridates  (1555),  which 
has  been  styled  the  first  effort  toward  the  comparative 
study  of  language.  When  Hebrew  was  added  to  Greek  and 
Latin  as  a  subject  for  wide  study,  linguists  began  to  look  at 
it  with  a  peculiar  interest.  Very  many  scholars  held  that  all 
living  languages  must  have  sprung  from  a  single  tongue. 

who  prepared  a  so-called  Opus  Aurettni,  made  up  of  Greek  and  Latin  moral 
sayings ;  Basilius  Faber,  whose  Latin  Thesaurus  or  Lexicon  long  survived, 
being  reedited  by  Cellarius  (1686) ;  Graevius  (1710)  ;  and  J.  M.  Gesner 
as  late  as  1726.  An  earlier  Gesner  at  Zurich  wrote  a  sort  of  combina- 
tion of  a  biographical-bibliographical  dictionary,  united  with  an  en- 
cyclopaedia, together  with  a  dictionary  of  Greek  and  Latin,  and  one  of 
proper  names.  A  pupil  of  Rivius  was  Georg  Fabricius  (1516-1571), 
who  studied  in  Italy,  and  explored  with  lively  interest  the  monuments 
and  inscriptions  in  Rome.  Like  modern  editors  of  the  familiar  classics, 
he  used  his  knowledge  of  topography  and  antiquities  to  illustrate  his 
editions  of  them. 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  399 

Furthermore,  they  argued  that  as  the  Old  Testament  was 
written  in  Hebrew,  Hebrew  must  have  been  the  earhest  lan- 
guage in  the  world, —  a  theory  which  has  found  adherents 
down  to  Gesenius  in  recent  times.  Great  was  the  industry 
devoted  to  collecting  words  from  different  languages  which 
had  the  same  meaning,  in  order  that  they  might  then  be 
studied  for  traces  of  their  common  origin. 

After  the  rise  of  the  Reformation  there  was  less  literary 
study  of  the  classics,  but  everywhere  one  might  notice  a 
sterner  and  stricter  discipline  both  in  the  schools  and  in  the 
universities.  Especial  branches  of  learning  were  cultivated . 
Lexicography  is  represented  by  Basilius  Faber  (1571),  and 
a  very  thorough  knowledge  of  Greek  with  critical  acumen 
were  the  characteristics  of  Friedrich  Sylburg  and  Lorenz 
Rhodomann,  the  latter  of  whom  was  remarkably  skilful 
in  writing  Greek  hexameters,  so  that  his  epic  poems  which 
he  put  forth  anonymously  (1588)  were  widely  believed  to  be 
genuine  works  of  antiquity. 

In  Hungary  during  the  Renaissance  there  were  some  few 
well-trained  classical  students,  such  as  Johannes  Vitez 
(d.  1472),  who  corresponded  with  the  Italian  scholars;  and 
Janus  Pannonius,  who  brought  to  Hungary  a  large  collec- 
tion of  Greek  and  Latin  manuscripts.  The  king  of  Hun- 
gary, Matthias  Corvinus,^  was  interested  in  the  humanities. 
He  founded  an  academy  at  Pressburg,  and  also  a  university 
at  Buda,  where  he  maintained  thirty  copyists  and  artists 

» 1443-1490. 


400  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

to  continue  the  supply  of  illuminated  manuscripts.  It  is 
interesting  that  Latin  remained  the  spoken  language  of  the 
Hungarian  aristocracy  down  into  the  nineteenth  century. 
Maria  Theresa's  famous  harangue  to  the  Hungarian  nobles 
was  delivered  in  Latin,  as  was  their  spirited  response: 
"  Moriamur  pro  rege  nostro,  Maria  Theresa  ! "  Latin  was 
also  the  official  language  of  the  Hungarian  Diet,  until  1828.^ 

1  Almost  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  Poland,  where  a  well-known 
humanist  who  had  studied  at  Cracow,  and  seems  never  to  have 
visited  Italy,  maintained  for  some  twenty  years  a  brisk  correspond- 
ence with  Filelfo.  The  first  Latin  history  of  Poland  was  written  by 
Johannes  Dlugosc.  Latin  poetry  was  mainly  studied  by  Gregor  of 
Sanok,  who  finally  became  a  lecturer  at  Cracow.  The  most  famous 
humanist,  however,  who  made  Latin  popular  in  Poland  was  Filippo 
Buonacorsi.  He,  with  Celtes,  founded  classical  societies  both  in  Poland 
and  Hungary,  as  the  latter  had  done  in  Western  Germany.  See 
Zeissberg,  Die  polnische  Geschichtsschreibung  des  MiUelalters,  etc.  (s.  1. 
1847),  and  on  Polish  classicism  see  Sokolowski  and  Szujski,  Mon.  Medii 
Jivi,  t.  ii  (Cracow,  1S76).  Classical  studies  in  Russia  began  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  the  Academy  of  Kiev  was  founded  in  1620. 
Latin  was  studied  rather  than  Greek  in  that  century,  and  all  instruc- 
tion was  carried  on  in  Latin.  After  Kiev,  Moscow  became  a  seat  of 
learning,  after  the  establishment  there,  in  1679,  of  a  printing  school. 
In  this  the  study  of  Greek  was  carried  on  and  was  subsidised  by  the 
government.  This  developed  into  the  SIavo-Gra;co-Latin  Academy 
(1685),  with  teachers  who  were  of  Greek  descent,  but  who  had  taken 
their  doctor's  degrees  at  Padua.  This  academy  was  favoured  by  Peter 
the  Great,  and  here  were  published  translations  of  classical  authors, 
twenty-six  volumes  being  rendered  into  Russian  by  the  long-lived 
scholar,  Martynov  (1771-1883).  The  University  of  Moscow  was 
founded  in  1755,  the  University  of  Vilna  in  1803,  the  University  of 
St.  Petersburg  in  1819,  the  University  of  Kazan  in  1804,  the  University 
of  Kharkov  in  1804,  and  that  of  Odessa  in  1865.  Much  was  done  for 
the  promotion  of  literary  studies  of  every  kind  by  Catharine  II  in  the 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  4OI 

Further  students  of  distinction  who  followed  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  were  Johann  August  Ernesti,^  a  famous 
teacher  of  Latin  style,  especially  of  the  pure  Ciceronianism. 
His  most  famous  books  are  an  edition  of  Cicero  in  five 
volumes  (1739)  with  an  Onomasticon  Ciceronianum  pub- 
lished after  his  death  at  Halle  (1832).  To  this  school  of 
stem  scholarship  we  must  also  ascribe  Johann  Jacob 
Reiske,  a  student  of  oriental  Greek,  and  author  of  full 
editions  of  Plutarch,  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis,  and 
others,  all  of  which  were  not  published  until  after  Reiske's 
death.     He  wrote  his  own  autobiography,  published  in 

eighteenth  century,  she  who  summoned  Voltaire  and  other  French 
writers  of  distinction  to  offset  the  German  influence,  which  remained 
and  continued  to  be  very  strong.  Almost  all  the  distinguished  scholars 
of  Russia  were  either  of  German  birth  and  training,  or  at  least  of 
German  training.  Thus  R.  T.  Timkovski  had  studied  at  Gottingen, 
under  Heyne  ;  Professor  D.  L.  Kriukos  (1809-1S45)  had  been  a  pupil 
of  Boeckh ;  while  one  of  the  most  brilliant  scholars  at  St.  Petersburg, 
Professor  N.  M.  Blagoviestschenski  (1821-1891)  had  "  heard  "  Hermann, 
Becker,  Haupt,  Creuzer,  and  Schlosser  at  Leipzig  and  Heidelberg. 
This  scholar  wrote  a  very  able  work  on  Horace  and  his  times,  besides 
an  annotated  translation  of  Persius,  and  also  discussed  certain  in- 
teresting questions  of  Roman  History.  Of  native  stock  were  V.  K. 
Lernstedt  (1854-1902),  who  made  an  edition  of  Antiphon  ;  L.  F.  Voevod- 
ski  (1846-1901),  who  wrote  a  peculiar  treatise  on  cannibalism  in  Greek 
Mythology,  which,  however,  he  regarded  as  bearing  upon  the  Sun 
Myth.  Of  the  many  Germans  who  taught  in  Russia  the  best  known 
are  Christian  Friedrich  Matthasi  of  Moscow,  where  he  discovered 
a  manuscript  of  the  Homeric  Hymns ;  C.  F.  Graefe  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, who  edited  Nonnus,  using  German  in  this  work  because  "  the 
revival  of  classical  learning  belongs  to  the  Germans."  During  the 
^  1707-1781. 
2D 


402  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Leipzig  (1783).  The  true  founder  of  the  science  of  Ar- 
chseology  was  Johann  Joachim  Winckelmann.  Winckel- 
mann  was  the  son  of  a  poor  cobbler,  and  was  for  many 
years  a  charity  scholar,  rising  gradually  by  his  energy 
and  ability.  At  length  his  associates  advised  him  to  fel- 
low that  career  which  ultimately  made  him  the  first 
great  creative  and  critical  scholar  in  the  field  of  Classical 
Archjeology.  He  spent  much  time  in  Rome,  Naples, 
and  Pompeii,  and  became  librarian  to  Cardinal  Albani, 
the  most  famous  collector  of  his  time,  to  whom  he  owed 
innumerable  opportunities.  In  many  ways  his  work  led 
to  the  elevation  of  taste  in  the  decorative  arts;  but  his 
monumental  production  is  his  Geschichte  der  Kunst  des 
Alterthums,  which  appeared  in  1764  (new  edition  by  Julius 
Lessing  with  biography,  1882).     Winckelmann  was  the 

middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  may  be  said  in  general  that  the 
Germans  greatly  influenced  and  stimulated  Russian  scholarship. 
August  Nauck  spent  the  better  part  of  his  life  in  teaching  Greek  at 
St.  Petersburg,  while  Lucian  Miiller  was  equally  conspicuous  for 
his  work  in  Latin.  Archeology  owes  much  to  Russia,  and  its 
study  began  in  the  reign  of  Peter  the  Great,  in  the  year  of  whose 
death  the  Academy  of  Sciences  was  founded.  After  the  Crimea  had 
been  conquered  in  1783,  great  interest  was  taken  in  the  exploration 
of  this  former  home  of  Greek  civilisation.  Much  has  been  done  in 
this  field  by  H.  E.  Kohler,  an  authority  on  ancient  gems,  and  especially 
by  L.  Stephani  (d.  1887),  who  spent  nearl}'  forty  years  in  charge  of 
the  antiquities  in  the  Hermitage  at  St.  Petersburg,  while  writing  many 
valuable  monographs  on  the  researches  in  Southern  Russia.  See  the 
interesting  synopsis  of  the  history  of  classical  scholarship  written  by 
Professor  Maleyn  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  incorporated  by  Dr.  J.  E. 
Sandys  in  the  third  volume  of  his  work  already  cited,  pp.  384-390. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  403 

teacher  of  his  age  and  the  expounder  of  Classic  Art.  It 
was  his  theory  of  the  Beautiful  which  greatly  impressed 
Goethe  and  which  led  Gotthold  Ephraim  Lessing  to  put 
forth  his  famous  discourse  called  Laokoon,  which  has 
never  ceased  to  be  discussed.^  Winckelmann's  death  has 
an  interest  for  the  superstitious.  In  April,  1768,  he  left 
Rome  to  revisit  Germany;  but  on  the  way  a  strong  feeling 
came  upon  him  that  he  should  not  depart  from  Italy.  This 
feeling  finally  amounted  to  a  horror,  yet  a  man  so  sane 
as  Winckelmann  disregarded  it,  and  visited  both  Munich 
and  Vienna.  At  the  Austrian  capital  he  was  received 
with  great  honour  by  the  Empress,  Maria  Theresa,  who 
presented  him  with  a  number  of  very  ancient  and  rare 
gold  coins.  Leaving  Vienna,  he  hurried  to  Trieste  to 
take  ship  for  Italy.  On  his  journey,  however,  he  fell  in 
with  a  man  named  Arcangeli,  an  ex-convict,  whose  greed 
was  excited  by  the  gold,  and  who  in  consequence  entered 
Winckelmann's  room  and  stabbed  him  to  death,  on  June 

8,  1768. 

Joseph  Eckhel,2  founded  the  science  of  Numismatics 
by  making  a  specialty  of  Greek  and  Latin  coins  and  med- 
als, on  which  he  wrote  eight  volumes,  entitled  Doctrina  Num- 
morum  Vetemm,  the  first  volume  appearing  in  1798  and 
the  whole  work  being  reprinted  in  a  fourth  edition  (1841). 

Christian  Gottlob  Heyne,  a  persuasive  teacher  steeped 
in  reading,  ends  this  so-called  Ante-Wolfian  Period.     He 

1  See  K.  Justi,  Winckelmann,  sein  Leben,  seine  Werke  und  seine  Zeit- 
genossen,  3  vols.  (Leipzig,  1872).  *  1737-1798. 


404  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

was  professor  at  Gottingen,  and  though  his  learning 
was  preeminent,  it  was  his  exceptional  gifts  as  a  teacher 
which  gave  him  and  his  university  the  leadership  at 
this  time.  It  is  said  that  of  his  students  at  least  one 
hundred  and  thirty  became  professors  in  various  uni- 
versities throughout  Germany  and  Holland.  Friedrich 
August  Wolf  was  born  in  1739,  and  lived  a  long  life  and 
died  in  1824.  He  was,  as  we  have  already  said,  the  true 
founder  of  modern  philology.^  He  was  at  first  Professor 
of  Philosophy  at  Halle  until  that  university  was  closed 
after  the  battle  of  Jena  (1806).  His  teaching  was  marked 
by  great  breadth,  since  he  held  that  classical  study  dealt 
with  every  phase  of  the  life  and  thought  of  antiquity.  In 
classical  antiquity  he  found  a  model  of  public  and  private 
life,  resting  upon  the  highest  ideals.  In  1807  he  went  to 
Berlin,  where  he  took  an  active  part  in  founding  the 
new  university;  but,  unfortunately,  he  became  involved 
in  petty  quarrels,  so  that  he  left  Germany  and  visited 
Southern  France,  where  he  died.  His  lasting  fame  rests 
upon  his  so-called  Prolegomena  ad  Homerum  (1795).  In 
it  he  traced  the  history  of  the  Homeric  poems,  and 
sought  to  show  that  they  have  both  been  greatly  changed 
from  their  original  form,  and  that  they  are  made  up  of 
separate  poems  by  different  authors.     It  is  not  true,  how- 

1  See  supra,  pp.  2-3.  He  attracted  much  attention  by  insisting  on 
being  matriculated  in  Philology,  though  there  was  no  such  faculty.  He 
was  told  to  matriculate  under  Theology,  but  refused ;  and  thus  he  was 
the  first  Sludiosus  pliilolcgiaeiu  Gottingen. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  405 

ever,  as  many  believe,  that  he  denied  the  existence  of  a 
personal  Homer.  Wolf's  views  had  in  part  been  antici- 
pated by  Giambattista  Vico,  by  Robert  Wood,  and  in  a 
fashion  by  Bentley.  They  go  back  even  to  the  x^P^Xo^'^^'i 
of  Alexandria;  but  Wolf  knew  nothing  of  Vico,  and 
moreover  his  own  minute  researches  were  extremely 
stimulating,  apart  from  his  conclusions.^ 

Wolf  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  classical  schol- 
arship. From  this  time  on  we  find  in  Germany  two 
schools,  one  devoted  to  Criticism  and  Exegesis  (the  Gram- 
matico-critical  School),  of  whom  the  great  exponents  were 
Gottfried  Hermann,^  a  sort  of  German  Bentley;  Christian 
August  Lobeck,^  whose  Aglaophamus  (1829)  contains  a 
vast  fund  of  information  on  the  Orphic  and  other  mys- 
teries of  the  Greeks;  August  Immanuel  Bekker/  who, 
besides  preparing  text-editions  of  Greek  authors,  largely 
helped  to  edit  the  Corpus  of  the  Byzantine  writers  in 
twenty-four  volumes,  and  also  a  Homer  with  thedigamma 

1  See  Volkmann,  Geschichle  und  Kritik  der  Wolf's  Prolegomena  (Leip- 
zig, 1874). 

2  1772-1848.  Hermann  was  professor  at  Leipzig  (1803  foil.)  and  gave 
courses  which  were  wide  in  their  scope  and  interest,  especially  in 
grammar  and  composition.  "  Know  your  authors  at  first  hand,  "  was  his 
motto.  In  the  study  of  Greek  prosody  and  rhythm,  he  was  likewise  a 
great  and  original  expounder.  He  first  set  forth  the  doctrine  of  the 
Anacrusis,  and  was  the  father  of  Metaphysical  Syntax.  See  W.  G. 
Hale,  A  Century  of  Metaphysical  Syntax,  published  in  part  of  the 
Proceedings  in  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  in  1904. 

3  1781-1860. 
«  178S-1871. 


406  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

printed  in  the  text.  He  spent  a'  long  time  in  making  re- 
searches throughout  the  principal  libraries  of  Europe,  and 
he  studied  the  texts  with  entire  indifference  to  the  printed 
editions.  An  epoch-making  work  was  that  of  Karl  Lach- 
mannon  Homer's  Iliad  (1807),  and  above  all,  his  immortal 
masterpiece,  in  which  he  took  the  hitherto  rent  and  little 
understood  poem  of  Lucretius,  and  with  his  fine  critical 
sense  —  far  greater  than  Bentley  ever  possessed  —  restored 
it  to  its  rightful  place  among  the  masterpieces  of  Latin 
genius.  Lachmann  was  first  a  professor  at  Konigsberg 
and  afterward  at  Berlin,  where  he  remained  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  his  colleagues  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  It  was  late  in  life  that  he  pro- 
duced his  Lucretius,  an  account  of  which  is  given  in 
the  preface  to  that  poet  by  H.  A.  J.  Munro,  who  says : 
"  Hardly  any  work  of  merit  has  appeared  in  Germany 
since  Lachmann's  Lucretius,  in  any  branch  of  Latin 
literature,  without  bearing  on  every  page  the  impress  of 
his  example."  He  was,  in  fact,  the  creator  of  a  strict 
and  scientific  system  of  textual  criticism.  In  this  he 
follows  Bentley,  of  whom  he  cannot  say  too  much  in 
praise;  but  he  goes  beyond  Bentley  in  restraining  his 
"  critical  sentiment"  by  ascertaining  the  original  form  of 
the  work  through  the  evidence  of  manuscripts,  and  the 
correction  of  their  errors.  He  was  renowned  no  less  for 
versatility  than  for  profound  learning,  so  much  so  that 
it  may  be  said  with  truth  that  he  was  a  master  of  three 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  407 

great  departments  of  philology — oriental,  classical,  and 
Teutonic.  In  each  of  these  he  produced  an  epoch-making 
work.  For,  besides  his  Lucretius,  by  which  he  is  per- 
haps the  best  known,  he  applied  the  principles  of  Wolf's 
Prolegomena  to  the  German  epic  of  the  Nibelungen  to 
show  that  this  could  be  resolved  into  twenty  original 
ballads  or  lays;  just  as  he  resolved  the  Iliad  into 
eighteen,  for  he  regarded  the  poem  as  inconsistent  in 
details.  In  his  treatment  of  Lucretius  he  was  followed 
especially  by  Hermann  Kochly,  by  Jacob  Bernays,  and 
by  the  Enghshman,  H.  A.  J.  Munro;  but  we  must  not 
forget  that  the  first  clear  light  upon  this  difficult  text 
came  centuries  before,  from  Lambinus  (Denys  Lambin). 
The  third  great  achievement  of  Lachmann  was  his 
treatment  of  the  New  Testament,  in  which  he  brought  out 
the  methodology  of  scientific  textual  criticism.^  To  the 
same  period  belong  in  the  Grammatico-critical  School 
the  illustrious  names  of  August  Meineke,^  who  wrote  a 
critical  history  of  the  Greek  comic  poets,  and  edited  the 
fragments,  assisted  by  Theodor  Bergk,  as  also  the  Alex- 
andrian poets  in  his  Analecta  Alexandrina,  K.  W. 
Dindorf,^  Karl  Lehrs,^  Friedrich  Ritschl,^  and  August 
* 1793-1851.  2 1790-1870. 

^  1802-1883.  With  his  brother  Ludwig  he  edited  all  the  Greek  plays 
and  other  texts,  besides  a  lexicon  to  ^Eschylus.  Both  brothers  shared  in 
the  making  of  three  famous  series  —  the  Teubner,  the  Tauchnits,  and 
the  Didot. 

*  1802-1878.     A  great  authority  on  grammatical  studies  in  Greece. 

s  1806-1876.     See  Friedrich  Ritschl,  by  L.  MuUer  (Berlin,  1878). 


408  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Nauck,^  who  did  so  much  for  the  lives  of  the  Greek 
tragic  poets.  He  was  a  professor  in  the  Academy  of  St. 
Petersburg, — one  of  the  many  who  carried  the  influence 
of  German  scholarship  to  Russia,  as  did  his  contempo- 
rary, Lucian  Miiller. 

In  the  Historico-antiquarian  School,  we  find  Barthold 
Georg  Niebuhr,  ^  founder  of  a  new  school  of  historical 
study.  Niebuhr  was  a  Dane  by  birth  and  a  lawyer  by 
profession.  But  soon  after  the  University  of  Berlin  was 
founded  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  history  in  that  insti- 
tution, where  he  lectured  almost  wholly  on  the  annals  of 
Rome,  before  brilliant  audiences  who  were  charmed  by  his 
novel  manner  of  treating  what  had  become  a  threadbare 
subject.  Hitherto,  Roman  history  had  been  told  and 
written  of  with  no  great  discrimination.  The  early  legends 
had  been  accepted  or  rejected  in  a  lump.  But  Niebuhr 
approached  them  in  the  spirit  of  a  lawyer  or  a  judge  who 
knows  that  all  human  testimony  is  imperfect  and  yet  con- 
tains a  certain  amount  of  truth.  Therefore,  he  proposed 
without  prejudice  to  take  up  the  written  records  of  Li\y 
and  other  authors  and  to  weigh  and  balance  them  as  though 
he  were  presiding  in  a  court.  This  method  was  singularly 
acute,  and  on  the  negative  or  destructive  side  was  widely 
accepted.     But  when  he  came  to  constructive  work  and 

* 1822-1892. 

*  1776-1831.  See  Winkworth,  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Niebuhr  (London, 
1853),  and  Eyssenhardt,  Niebuhr  (Gotha,  1876). 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  409 

himself  put  forth  two  volumes  of  a  History/  they  were 
treated  by  historians  according  to  Niebuhr's  own  method, 
and  had  their  defects  pointed  out  with  much  acumen. 
The  theory  of  "tribal  lays"  had  been  somewhat  over- 
done; and  when  Niebuhr  resolved  this  early  history  of 
Rome  into  the  remains  of  a  series  of  poetical  ballads, 
he  failed  to  convince.     He  was  not  even  original.^ 

Yet  it  was  Niebuhr  who  first  treated  his  subject  in  a 
truly  scientific  spirit  so  far  as  his  early  lectures  went. 
His  studies  of  the  population  of  Rome  under  the  Republic, 
and  its  divisions  —  the  plehs,  the  patricians  and  plebeians, 
the  ager  publicus,  etc.  —  were  all  new  and  acceptable  to 
scholars.  Furthermore,  he  put  forth  two  volumes  of  mis- 
cellanies, mainly  philological,  and  dealing  partly  with 
the  criticism  of  classical  texts  ^  and  topography,  having 
himself  in  Italy  discovered  new  fragments  and  palimpsests. 
Niebuhr  had  a  freshness  and  vivacity  of  style  which  helped 
convince  his  hearers;  nor  was  this  effect  diminished  by  a 
remarkable  self-consciousness  such  as  once  led  him  to  say : 
"  The  discovery  of  no  ancient  historian  could  have 
taught  the  world   so  much  as  my  work."     Though  in 

1  In  1812. 

^  Perizonius,  the  Dutch  scholar,  had  anticipated  this  theory  (1685), 
while  the  Frenchman,  Louis  de  Beaufort,  had  published  (1738-1750) 
proofs  of  the  uncertainty  of  early  Roman  History.  Niebuhr  was 
also  preceded  by  Arnold  Heeren  (i 760-1842),  whose  monographs  on 
ancient  commerce,  politics,  and  colonization  were  in  many  cases 
written  before  Niebuhr  began  his  lectures  at  Berlin. 

5 1828-1843. 


41 0  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

detail  he  was  often  wrong,  the  later  researches  of  able  men* 
have  not  shaken  the  foundations  of  his  history.  He  was, 
in  fact,  a  Danish  Gibbon,  dealing  with  the  early  Republic 
as  Gibbon  did  with  the  later  Empire.^ 

1  His  friend,  Georg  Ludwig  Spalding  (1762-1811),  went  to  Berlin 
with  Niebu'hr  and  there  put  forth  three  volumes  of  a  fine  edition  of 
Quintilian,  the  fourth  volume  being  seen  through  the  press  by  P.  K. 
Buttmann  with  an  excellent  lexicon  to  the  author  by  Bonnel  in  a 
fifth  volume. 

"^  Other  scholars  of  the  time  were  the  famous  F.  E.  D.  Sclileier- 
macher,  who  did  so  much  for  German  prose  style  and  for  the  ana- 
lytical study  of  Plato ;  Ludwig  Friedrich  Heindorf ,  also  a  Platonist, 
but  best  known  for  his  notes  on  Horace;  Philipp  Karl  Buttmann 
(originally  Boudemont),  author  of  a  clearly  expressed  but  purely 
dogmatical  grammar,  and  of  a  Lexilogus,  an  acute  study  of  the 
Homeric  vocabulary.  His  other  works  may  be  ignored.  Immanuel 
Bekker  (1785-1871),  of  Berlin,  was  a  notable  critic  of  Greek  texts. 
For  sixty-one  years  he  held  his  professorship  at  Berlin,  seldom  lectur- 
ing, seldom  heard,  yet  winning  a  brilliant  reputation  among  scholars  for 
his  collection  of  manuscripts  (over  four  hundred)  and  his  improvements 
in  the  existing  texts  of  Aristotle,  Plato,  the  Attic  orators,  the  Byzan- 
tine historians,  many  late  writers,  and  in  Latin,  of  Livy  and  Tacitus. 
It  was  first  said  of  him,  and  not  of  von  Moltke,  that  "  he  could 
be  silent  in  seven  languages."  See  H.  Suppe  (Gottingen,  1872). 
August  Boeckli  (i 785-1867)  was  the  rival  of  Gottfried  Hermann. 
He  devoted  his  attention  to  the  antiquarian  aspect  of  the  classics.  He 
made  especial  studies  of  Plato  and  the  dramatists,  while  his  elaborate 
edition  of  Pindar  is  a  monument  to  his  industry  (1811-1821).  He 
was  professor  of  Eloquence  in  the  University  of  Berlin  for  fifty-six 
years.  In  his  work  he  was  more  interested  in  broad  views  of  classical 
learning,  and  unlike  Hermann  he  published  a  treatise  on  the  public 
economy  of  Athens  (Eng.  trans.,  Boston,  1857),  and  a  great  part  of 
the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Gracarum,  but  not  ended  until  (1877)  ten 
years  after  his  death. 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  41I 

Among  the  earliest  text-critics  and  grammarians  after 
Hermann  was  Christian  August  Lobeck  (1781-1860), 
who  taught  at  Wittenburg  and  Konigsberg.  He  discussed 
with  much  acuteness  the  laws  of  word-formation  in  Greek, 
taking  up  the  terminations  of  nouns  and  the  general  laws 
of  the  language  in  his  Phrynicus  (1820),  his  notes  on  a 
fragment  of  Herodian  (1820),  and  his  great  Pathologia 
Sermonis  Grceci  (1843-1862).  His  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  Greek  literature  enabled  him  to  pour  forth  a  mul- 
titude of  examples  and  to  detect  and  illustrate  the  living 
phenomena  of  the  language.  In  addition  to  Lobeck  was 
Gregor  Wilhelm  Nitzsch  (1790-1861) ,  whose  life  was  largely 
devoted  to  Homeric  studies.  He  differed  from  Wolf  in 
regarding  the  actual  Homer  as  living  near  the  end  of  the 
poems,  and  therefore  the  shaping  artist;  while  he  makes 
the  point  that  the  Cyclic  Poets  implied  the  existence  of 
an  Iliad  and  an  Odyssey  somewhat  in  their  present  form. 

Better  known,  in  foreign  countries  at  least,  was  Karl 
Friedrich  Nagelsbach,  and  most  of  all  for  his  treatise  on 
Latin  style  {Lateinische  Stilistik),  which,  appeared  in  1846, 
and  reached  its  ninth  edition  at  the  hands  of  Iwan  Miiller 
(1905) ,  who  gave  it  a  complete  index,  and  thus  greatly  added 
to  its  usefulness.  The  book  deals  with  the  most  character- 
istic differences  of  idiom  between  Latin  and  German  prose. 

Lobeck  and  Karl  Lehrs  carried  on  grammatical  studies 
relating  to  the  Greek  from  the  beginning  of  the  decadence 
(300  B.C.)  to  the  Byzantine  Age.     As  a  critic,  Lehrs  treated 


412  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

the  text  of  Horace  very  severely,  many  of  whose  odes  he 

even  rejected  as  spurious !     An  early  pupil  of  Hermann 

was  Friedrich  Wilhelm   Thiersch  (i  784-1860),  a  lecturer 

at  Munich,  and  doing  much  for  the  organisation  of  the 

educational  system  of  Bavaria.     He  had  studied  the  art 

of  the  Louvre  and  the  British  Museum,  and  therefore 

gave  much  attention  to  antique  sculpture.     It  was  due  to 

him  that  the  Glyptothek  was  founded  at  the  Bavarian 

capital  by  the  Crown  Prince,     Thiersch,  however,  rightly 

belongs  to  the  list  of  grammarians,  and  besides  two  Greek 

grammars,  he  wrote  innumerable  treatises  on  the  nicer 

points   of   word-formation    and    the    particles.     He    was 

fairly    intimate    also    with    modem    Greek,    and    wrote 

in  French    a    treatise  on  the  Greece  of   to-day.     Other 

professors  at  the  Bavarian  university  were  Georg  Anton 

Friedrich    Ast    (i 778-1841),    editor    of    the    Characters 

of  Theophrastus;   Leonhard  Spengel,  Carl  Prunst  (1820- 

1888) ;    and    Ludwig   Doederlein,  professor  at  Bern  and 

Erlangen,  and  noted    for    his  forcible  and    stimulating 

lectures,  full  of  epigram,  and  for  his  rather  unmethodical 

treatises  on  synonyms  and  etymologies  in  Latin  {Lateinische 

Synonymen  und  Etymologien,  6  vols. ;  Lateinische  Synony- 

mik,  etc.),  the  first  of  which  was  published  in  1826-1838, 

and  the  second  in  1839. 

Grammar  was  still  the  subject  that  attracted  Karl 
Wilhelm  Kriiger  (1796-1874),  whose  Greek  grammar  in 
two  parts  has  its  rules  clearly  stated  and  its  examples 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  413 

always  pertinent.  This  book  was  rivalled  by  that  of 
Raphael  Kiihner  (1802-1878),  and  the  trio  was  completed 
by  Heinrich  Ludolf  Ahrens  (1809-1881),  the  author  of  an 
exhaustive  treatise  on  the  Greek  dialects  (Gottingen, 
1839-1843).  Many  of  the  papers  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
Schneidewin,  the  editor  of  several  Greek  dramatists,  show 
that  he,  too,  though  given  to  criticism  as  Hermann  was, 
and  to  archaeology  as  was  Thiersch,  was  a  grammarian 
in  the  sense  that  we  now  employ  the  word. 

But  Syntax  led  to  another  sphere  of  labor  with  Gott- 
fried Bernhardy  (1800-1875),  who,  in  1829,  published  a 
volume  on  the  scientific  syntax  of  the  Greek  language,  but 
regarded  syntax  solely  in  its  relation  to  the  history  of 
Latin  literature.  As  professor  at  Halle  (where  he  was 
afterwards  pro-Rector)  he  published  a  very  interesting 
monograph  on  his  own  system  of  classical  learning  (1832), 
which  is  very  suggestive  and  full  of  truth.  According  to 
him,  grammar  is  the  instrument  of  such  learning,  and 
Criticism  and  Interpretation  its  elements.  Of  less  account 
and  purely  ancillary  are  Antiquities,  Palaeography, 
Numismatics,  and  Epigraphy.  In  this,  Bernhardy  may 
be  said  to  have  set  forth  the  whole  truth  regarding  classical 
study  when  regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  a  wise  and 
widely  read  scholar  who  applies  philosophy  to  the  subject 
that  is  dearest  to  him.  In  Bernhardy  one  sees  alike  the 
influence  of  Hegel  and  of  Wolf.  He  carries  out  his  prin- 
ciples in  two  books  which  were  the  first  of  the  kind  to 


414  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

place  the  study  of  classical   literature  upon  a  very  high 
level.* 

Following  Bemhardy,  an  excellent  work  on  Roman 
literature  2  was  prepared  in  two  volumes  by  Wilhelm 
Sigismund  Teuffel  of  Tubingen  (1820-1878).  This  work 
is  not  intended  for  continuous  reading,  but  is  a  sort  of 
glorified  bibliography  with  notes.  It  was  at  first  vilely 
translated  into  English  by  W.  Wagner,  and  later  its  fourth 
edition,  having  been  enlarged  and  supplemented  by  L. 
Schwabe,  was  well  rendered  into  English  by  G.  C.  W. 
Warr  (1845  ^^^  1901),  who  added  the  more  important 
English  and  French  references  which  the  Germans  had 
insolently  omitted.  This  is  a  book  of  great  value  to  the 
student  of  Latin  for  the  easy  access  which  it  gives  him  to 
many  details  relating  to  Roman  authors  and  their  books. 
Closely  linked  with  another  valuable  work  of  reference 
is  the  name  of  Teuffel,  who  assisted  the  completion  of 
the  great  Real-Encyclopddie  of  August  Pauly  (1796- 
1845),  a  monument  of  minute  information  regarding 
Greek  and  Roman  topics,  which,  begun  at  Stuttgart  in 
1839,  was  finished  after  Pauly's  death. ^ 

1  Grundriss  der  romischen  Litteralur  (1830,  5th  ed.,  Brunswick, 
1872);  Grundriss  der  Griechischen  Litteralur  (1836-1845;  4th  ed.,  3 
vols.,  1876-1880).  There  is  a  Life  of  Bernhardy  by  Volkmann.  It 
describes  his  other  works,  such  as  his  Suidas  (1853),  his  rivalries 
with  M.  H.  E.  Meier  and  Theodor  Bergk,  and  his  fatherly  friendship 
for  his  pupils,  such  as  Heinrich  Keil  and  August  Nauck. 

^  Geschichte  der  romischen  Litteralur  (1870),  last  Eng.  trans.,  1900. 

'  New  ed.  by  Georg  Wissowa  (1902). 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  415 

Grammatical  studies  were  further  pursued  by  Karl 
Gottlob  Zumpt  (i 792-1849),  whose  grammar  of  Latin 
prose  (1818)  was  several  times  translated  into  English 
and  was  circulated  in  the  British  dominions  as  well  as  in 
the  United  States;  by  Karl  Leopold  Schneider  (i 786-1821), 
whose  large  grammar  was  the  first  systematic  treatise 
of  the  kind  produced  in  Germany;  Nicolai,  Meisterhans, 
R.  Klotz,  J.  F.  Jacob,  editior  of  the  Mna,  and  Albert 
Forbiger  (1798-1878),  a  second-rate  scholar,  but  one  whose 
pedestrian  editions  of  Vergil  and  Lucretius  were  better 
known  in  England  than  those  of  Heyne  and  Lachmann. 
Forbiger  was  also  the  compiler  of  a  German-Latin  dic- 
tionary.^ 

^  Lexicography,  being  an  elementary  part  of  grammar,  may  be 
considered  here  in  its  later  developments,  with  a  reference  to  early 
lexicography  on  pp.  96,  97,  108,  126,  165-167,  194,  246,  247,  254, 
25s,  305-  Soon  after  the  Renaissance  began  to  make  word-books 
and  various  kinds  of  lexica  popular,  one  Ambrogio  Calepino  (Ambro- 
sius  Calepinus)  had  prepared  a  Didionarium  which  was  widely  used, 
because  it  defined  the  Latin  words  in  Italian  and  later  gave  also  the 
equivalent  in  Greek.  The  success  of  the  so-called  Calepinus  was 
extraordinary.  It  was  repubhshed,  revised,  ampHfied,  and  extended 
in  every  possible  way,  the  definitions  being  given  in  many  lan- 
guages, so  that  finally  there  was  produced  a  Calepinus  with  the  Latin 
defined  in  Italian,  German,  French,  Dutch,  Danish,  English,  and 
Greek.  The  vogue  of  the  book,  thus  altered,  continued  into  the 
eighteenth  centurj',  when  still  another  revision  was  undertaken  at 
Padua  by  lacopo  Facciolati,  who  soon  became  convinced  that  the 
whole  work  was  antiquated.  He  proposed  that  an  entirely  new 
lexicon  be  made  out  of  the  great  body  of  Latin  authors;  and  this 
was  finally  done  by  himself  and  his  colleague  Egidio  Forcellini,  in 


41 6  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

The  broadly  scientific  study  of  language  which  is  va- 
riously known  as  Linguistics  {Linguistik) ,  or  Comparative 

their  Totius  Latinitatis  Lexicon  (Padua,  1771),  a  splendid  memo- 
rial of  classical  scholarship.  This  was  revised  by  Vicenzo  De-Vit 
(1879)  and  Fr.  Corradini  (d.  1888),  who  used  the  work  of  Klotz, 
and  whose  lexicon  was  completed  after  his  death  (1890)  by  Perin. 
It  has  been  said  of  this  great  lexicon  as  made  by  Facciolati  and 
Forcellini,  so  fully  have  they  illustrated  their  articles  by  quota- 
tions from  the  classics,  that  the  greater  part  of  Latin  literature  could 
be  restored  from  their  lexicon,  were  it  destroyed  in  the  texts  where 
we  now  find  it.  Other  lexicons  than  those  of  the  Italians  have  been 
independently  made  by  Wilhelm  Freund  in  Germany  (enlarged  and 
translated  in  the  United  States  by  E.  A.  Andrews)  and  made  the  basis 
of  Lewis  and  Scott's  Latin  Dictionary  (1882).  This  was  "conveyed" 
by  the  English  publisher,  William  Smith  (afterward  Sir  William),  and 
is  known  in  England  as  Smith's  Latin  Dictionary.  Independently, 
Karl  Ernst  Georges  (1806-1895),  of  Gotha,  produced  a  German- 
Latin  lexicon  in  1833,  and  it  was  accepted  at  Jena  as  the  equivalent 
of  a  doctor's  dissertation.  A  seventh  edition  appeared  in  1882,  as 
did  (in  1879)  the  seventh  edition  of  another  lexicon  which  bears  the 
name  of  Georges,  but  which  is  based  upon  the  work  of  other  scholars, 
such  as  Luneman,  Forcellini,  Gesner,  and  Scheller.  Georges  had 
ill  health  and  weak  eyesight,  so  that  he  did  not  often  go  far  from 
his  library;  but  he  generously  put  his  stores  of  learning  at  the  dis- 
posal of  scholars  in  every  part  of  the  world.  Besides  the  books  already 
mentioned  he  wrote  a  Latin-German  and  German-Latin  Hand- 
worierbuch  and  a  Schidworterbuch,  both  of  which  have  gone  through 
many  editions.  The  most  ambitious  attempt  at  a  Latin  lexicon  was 
that  planned  by  Eduard  WoIfHin,  professor  at  Munich.  As  early 
as  1857,  the  king  of  Bavaria  offered  to  contribute  ten  thousand 
gulden  toward  the  cost  of  a  truly  complete  dictionary  of  Latin. 
It  was  proposed  to  put  the  editorship  into  the  hands  of  Carl  Halm 
of  Munich,  Ritschel,  and  Alfred  Fleckeisen,  with  Franz  Biicheler 
of  Bonn  as  editor-in-chief.  Political  disturbances  delayed  the  enter- 
prise until  finally  Wolfflin  began  the   publication  of  his  Archiv  fiir 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  417 

Philology,  began  with  the  discovery  of  Sanskrit  by  Sir 
William  Jones,  already  mentioned  (p.  383).     The  greatest 

lateinisch  Lexikographie  und  Grammatik  (in  1848),  a  quarterly  for 
collections  and  suggestions  from  scholars  all  over  the  world.  In 
1893  the  Archiv  announced  a  plan  for  a  great  Thesaurus  in  12  vols, 
of  1000  pages  each,  to  befinished  in  twenty  years  at  a  cost  of  $150,000, 
and  under  the  charge  of  the  academies  of  Berlin,  Gottingen,  Leipzig, 
Munich,  and  Vienna.  Professor  Biicheler,  Wolfflin  and  F.  Leo  were 
the  first  editors.     It  was  to  appear  in  fasciculi. 

Greek  lexicography  reached  its  highest   excellence  with  the  dic- 
tionary of  Stephanus  (see  p.  305),  yet,  as  with  Latin,  there  was  felt 
the  need  of  lexicons  that  should  define  Greek  words  in  the  language 
of  the  students  using  them,  instead  of  in  Latin.     Faber,  in  1571, 
had  published  a  Thesaurus;  but,  using  that  as  a  basis,  J.  M.  Gesner, 
between  1726  and  1735,  issued  two  revisions,  and  now  he  set  forth  a 
Thesaurus  of  his  own,  eliminating  barbarisms  and  solecisms,  and 
though  uneven  in  its  treatment  and  explanation,  it  marked  a  distinct 
advance  in  the  history  of  lexicography.     Gesner  was  noted  as  a  leader 
in  the  New  Humanism.     The  Old  Humanism  of  the  Renaissance  had 
sought  to  prolong  the  life  of  the  Latin  language  and  literature.     Yet 
this  was  found  to  be  impracticable  as  a  spoken  tongue,  and  the  so-called 
School  of  Halle  abandoned  the  attempt,  and  merely  tolerated  the  teach- 
ing of  spoken  Latin  in  the  schools.     But  the  New  Humanists,  headed  by 
Gesner  at  Gottingen,  held  that  the  classics  had  a  psychic  and  philosoph- 
ical value  which  made  the  study  of  them  peculiarly  helpful,  in  leading 
to  a  broader  and  richer  understanding  of  the  modern  literatures  and 
of  their  art  and  poetry  and  every  phase  of  learning.     This  view  was 
that  which  bore  fruit  in  the  aesthetic  teachings  of  Winckelmann,  of 
Lessing,  and  of  Goethe.    Gesner  was  also  the  precursor  of  Heyne  in  let- 
ting taste  play  a  part  in  his  exegesis  and  commenting  upon  the  authors 
whom  he  edited  {Scripiores  Rei  RusUccr,  Quintilian,  Pliny's  Letters  and 
Panegyricus,  Horace,  and  Claudian).     Others  of  the  New  Humanists 
were  Tobias  Damm   (1699-17 78),  a  teacher  in  Berlin  who  compiled 
a  great  lexicon  to  Homer  and  another   to   Pindar,  the  words  being 
etymologically  arranged  (alphabetically  by  V.  C.  F.  Rest  in  1833). 

2E 


4l8  HISTORY    OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

achievements  in  this  department  of  Classical  Philology 
have  been  made  by  Germans  or  in  Germany.  Sir  William 
Jones  drew  attention  to  the  likeness  of  the  structural 
system  of  Sanskrit  and  what  we  now  call  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean languages;  but  it  was  Franz  Bopp  (1791-1867)  who 
gave  a  scientific  turn  to  the  discovery.  Bopp  was  bom  in 
Mayence,  hved  in  Paris  (1812-1815),  where  he  studied 
Persian  and  Arabic  under  de  Sacy,  and  himself  learned 
Sanskrit  from  the  grammars  of  William  Carey  (1806) 
and  Sir  Charles  Wilkins  (1808).  In  1821  he  became 
professor,  and  held  his  chair  for  fifty -six  years  down 
to    his  death.  ^    In    18 16    he    published    his    first  work 

Johann  GotUob  Schneider  (1750-1822),  of  Breslau,  whose  lexicon 
supplied  a  model  for  those  of  Franz  Passow  (i8i9-i824),as  Passow's 
did  for  Rest  and  Palm  (1841-1857),  and  this  in  turn  for  that  of  the 
Englishmen  Liddell  and  Scott  (1843),  the  last  edition  (1880)  bearing 
on  its  title  page  also  the  name  of  Henry  Drisler,  an  American 
Hellenist  of  Columbia  College,  New  York,  who  had  himself  made 
an  independent  lexicon  of  Greek,  including  proper  names.  Messrs. 
Liddell  and  Scott  were  scholars  of  very  unequal  capacity.  A 
popular   rhyme   in    England    runs    as     follows : 

"  This  is  the  book  of  Liddell  and  Scott, 
Some  of  it's  good  and  some  of  it's  not, 
That  which  is  good  is  Scott, 
That  which  is  Liddell  is  not !  " 

The  first  appearance  of  Liddell  and  Scott's  lexicon  in  1843  ^as, 
however,  noteworthy,  because  its  definitions  were  given  in  English 
and  not  in  Latin  —  an  innovation  for  which  the  editors  gave  a  very 
noble  defence  in  their  preface. 

*  See  Lefmann,  Franz  Bopp,  sein  Leben  und  seine  Wissenschaft 
(Berlin,  1896). 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  419 

on  the  conjugational  system  of  Sanskrit  as  compared 
with  those  of  Greek,  Latin,  Persian,  and  German, 
endeavouring  to  explain  the  origins  of  our  grammatical 
forms.  This  he  discussed  more  freely  and  fully  in  his 
Comparative  Grammar  {Vergleichende  Grammatik),  which 
appeared  in  1833.  Bopp  made  much  of  "  roots  "  and 
more  legitimately  of  conjugational  similarities  in  the  lan- 
guages named.  But  when  he  wrote  he  was  in  advance  of 
his  time.  Sanskrit  was  still  imperfectly  understood,  and 
therefore  Bopp's  earlier  contemporaries,  such  as  Hermann 
and  Lobeck,  held  aloof,  while  some,  like  Ludwig  Ross, 
even  treated  Comparative  Grammar  as  a  subject  for 
witticisms. 

Theodor  Benfey,  a  converted  Jew  (1809-1881),  gave 
an  intense  devotion  to  the  study  of  Sanskrit,  of  which  lan- 
guage he  wrote  a  complete  grammar  (1852),  having  pre- 
viously published  a  lexicon  of  "  Greek  roots "  (1839- 
1842)  and  very  many  articles  and  monographs  on  scientific 
Greek  etymology.  After  Bopp  and  Benfey,  the  two  great 
pioneers  in  the  comparative  study  of  languages,  there  came 
many,  of  whom  Georg  Curtius  (1820-1885),  at  Leipzig, 
was  the  most  influential  —  the  head  of  a  school  of  language 
study. ^  Curtius,  whose  elder  brother  Ernst  won  fame  for 
a  history  of  Greece  (1857-1867),^  in  his  inaugural,  declared 

^  See  J.  M.  Edmonds's  Comparative  Philology  (Cambridge,  1906). 
Leo  Meyer,  who  was  a  pupil  of  Benfey  and  did  much  to  further  his 
work,  is  at  the  present  writing  still  living  as  an  honorary  professor 
at  Gottingen.  2  g^g  trans,  by  A.  W.  Ward  (1873). 


420  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

that  he  should  bring  Classical  Philology  and  language 
study  into  closer  relation  with  each  other.  This  he  accom- 
plished by  his  own  influence  and  that  of  his  many  dis- 
tinguished pupils  —  ten  volumes  of  Sludien  (1868-1878) 
with  five  volumes  of  Leipziger  Studien  (1878-1882)  being 
edited  by  himself  and  his  colleagues.  The  chief  works 
that  were  wholly  his  own  were  his  Greek  grammar  for 
schools  (Prague,  1832),  principles  of  Greek  Etymology 
(1858-1862),  and  his  bulky  treatise  on  the  Greek  Verb 
(1873-1876).  In  his  etymological  discussions,  Georg 
Curtius  investigates  and  classifies  the  regular  phonetic 
changes  in  the  consonants  as  they  pass  from  Sanskrit  to 
Greek,  Latin,  or  German ;  but  many  of  these  changes  are 
irregular  and  not  in  accordance  with  any  settled  principle 
known  to  Curtius  at  that  time.  So  he  dubs  them  "  spo- 
radic changes,"  to  be  explained  or  not,  according  to  the 
ingenuity  of  the  investigator.  In  other  words,  he  held  that 
the  exceptions  to  the  consonantal  changes  set  forth  in 
Grimm's  Law  were  "  sporadic  "  and  really  accidental. 
What  was  Grimm's  Law  ?  It  is  a  law  as  to  the  relations 
between  the  consonants  in  (i)  Sanskrit,  Greek,  and  Latin, 
(2)  High  German  and  Low  German  (including  English).^ 
The  germ  of  this  law  was  discovered  by  Rasmus  Kris- 
tian  Rask  (i 787-1832),  who  had  travelled  extensively  in 
Iceland,  Sweden,  Finland,  Russia,  Persia,  and  India,  care- 
fully comparing  the  difi"erent  languages  spoken  in  these 

*  See  Giles,  Comparative  Philology,  §  99  et.  al. 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  42 1 

countries.  It  was  he  who,  first  among  Europeans,  came 
to  know  grammatically  the  Old  Persian  form  of  speech 
that  is  variously  called  "  Zend  "  or  "  Avestan."  Rask's 
book  on  Icelandic  and  other  languages  (18 18)  partly 
anticipated  the  law  which  generally  governs  the  consonantal 
changes  already  mentioned.  Jakob  Grimm  (i 785-1863) 
who  was  preparing  a  German  grammar,  saw  at  a  flash  the 
great  importance  of  Rask's  statements;  and  when  the 
second  edition  of  his  Deutsche  Grammatik  appeared  (1822), 
it  showed  the  influence  of  Rask.  Hence  the  law  of 
consonantal  change  came  to  be  styled  Grimm's  Law; 
but  the  exceptions  to  it  were  regarded  as  inexplicable  and 
as  partly  justifying  the  famous  gibe  of  M.  de  Voltaire. 
Curtius  with  Grimm's  Law  and  the  "  sporadic  changes  " 
reigned  content,  until  a  young  Dane,  Karl  Ludwig  Verner, 
who  was  not  a  classical  scholar  at  all,  wrote  a  paper  in 
Kuhn's  Zeiischrift,^  which  showed  that  these  exceptions 
were  due  to  the  accentual  system  of  the  original  Indo- 
Germanic  languages.  That  is,  the  sonant  spirants,  except 
p,  f,  h,  w,  and  s,  became  respectively  the  spirants  d,  3, 
g,  gii,  and  s  when  the  vowel  immediately  preceding  them 
did  not,  according  to  the  original  Indo-Germanic  system, 
have  the  primary  accent  of  the  word.  This  gives  proof 
of  the  prevailing  "  pre-accent  "  down  to  about  300  a.d. 
These  two  discoveries  —  that  of  Rask   (Grimm)   and  of 

1  Vol.  xxiii,  pp.  79-130  (1877),  entitled  Eine  Ausnahme  der  Ersten 
Lautverschiebung. 


42  2  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Karl  Verner — are  the  most  remarkable  and  have  been  the 
most  fruitful  in  the  study  of  languages  since  Classical 
Philology  began.  They  were  applied  with  great  skill  by 
Karl  Brugmann  of  Leipzig,  who  may  be  styled  the  chief 
of  the  Jung-Grammatiker,  among  whom  are  numbered 
Hermann  Osthoff  of  Heidelberg,  August  Leskien  of  Leip- 
zig, Hermann  Paul  of  Munich,^  and  Ludwig  Lange  of 
Leipzig  (1825-1885).  The  New  Grammarians  hold  in 
general  (i)  that  language-changes,  so  far  as  tliey  are 
mechanical,  occur  according  to  definite  and  immutable 
laws,  and  (2)  that  the  principle  of  Analogy,  which  is  always 
at  work,  has  been  so  ever  since  speech  began.^ 

The  Young  Grammarians  found  a  powerful  ally  in 
Friedrich  Karl  Brugmann  (1849-  )>  who  cooperated 
with  the  others,  and  wrote  a  paper  almost  as  revolutionary 
as  Vemer's,  in  Curtius's  Studien.^  The  subject  was 
Nasalis  Sonans,  and  proved  so  destructive  to  the  theories 
of  Curtius  as  to  bring  about  a  personal  rupture  between  the 
two  men;  so  that  for  many  years  Curtius  and  the  Old 
Grammarians  waged  an  unceasing  war  on  Burgmann  and 
his  disciples.  It  is  now  universally  accepted  that  Brug- 
mann  was   correct   in   his   view   of   the   Indo-Germanic 

1  Paul's  Principien  der  Sprachgeschichte  (Eng.  adapt,  by  Strong, 
Logeman,  and  Wheeler) ;  and  Brugmann's  Griindriss  der  verglei- 
chenden  Grammatik  der  indo-germanischen  Sprachen  (Eng.  trans.). 

2  See  B.  I.  Wheeler,  Analogy  and  the  Scope  of  its  Application  in 
Study  (1887). 

'  Vol.  ix  (Leipzig,  1877). 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  423 

vocalic  nasals.^  In  fact,  owing  to  the  labors  of  Vemer,  of 
Brugmann  (who  finally  succeeded  Curtius  at  Leipzig), 
and  the  Young  Grammarians  in  general,  language-study 
has  been  put  upon  a  sound  scientific  basis,  wherein  changes 
are  to  be  traced,  not  to  sporadic  causes,  but  to  analogy, 
which  has  laws  of  its  own. 

It  was  natural  that  so  great  a  change  in   linguistics 
should  be  accompanied  by  a  new  movement  in  the  field 
of    grammar    which    sets    forth,  quasi-dogmatically,  the 
truths  of  language- study.     Hence  we  find  the   German 
influence  exliibited  by  Johann  Nicolai  Madvig  (1804-1SS6), 
a  Dane  of  great  distinction  who  was  educated  at  Copen- 
hagen.    He  became  professor  of  Latin  there  (1829)  and  re- 
mained as  such  for  more  than  fifty  years.     Like  most  of 
the  greatest  scholars  whom   the  world  has  seen,  Aladvig 
was  remarkably  versatile,  engaging  as  much  in  politics, 
law,  and  diplomacy  as  in  classical  study.     He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Diet,  President  of  the  Council,  Inspector  of 
Schools,  and  Minister  of  Education.     As  a  grammarian 
and  critic  his  best  work  was  done  in  Cicero,  but  his  collec- 
tive papers.  Adversaria  Critica,  etc.,  are  masterpieces  of 
interpretation  and  criticism.     His  Latin  grammar  (1841) 
was   translated   in   every   European   country   and   in   the 
United  States.     His  personality  was  remarkable.     To  his 
death,   in    his   eightieth  year,  he  was   vigorous   and  full 

^  See  Brugmann's  great  work,  Grundriss  der  vergJeichenden  Gram- 
malik  der  indo-gcrmaiiischen  Sprachen  (Eng.  trans.,  2d  ed.,  1897). 


424  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

of  the  scholar's  zest,  combined  with  the  graceful  poise  of 
the  diplomat  who  has  mingled  with  kings  and  nobles. 
"  Speak  the  truth  in  love  "  was  his  favourite  maxim,  and 
it  was  carried  out  to  the  letter.  He  taught  all  the  scholars 
of  modem  Denmark  and  most  of  the  Scandinavian  coun- 
tries. Among  his  pupils  were  Christensen,  Sophus  Bugge, 
and  Johan  Louis  Bugge  (1820-1905)  of  Christiania.  As 
a  critic,  Madvig  was  less  given  than  his  contemporaries  to 
the  minute  study  of  manuscripts,  except  in  determining 
their  relation  to  the  archetype.  He  dwelt  largely  on  verbal 
criticism,  and  was  an  adept  in  conjectural  emendation. 
In  his  judgments  he  recalled  the  judicial  methods  of 
Niebuhr.  Such  was  Madvig,  a  great  classical  scholar  — 
a  Grecian,  a  Latinist,  a  critic,  a  grammarian,  and  a  brill- 
iant man   of   the   world. 

To  be  compared  with  the  Danish  Madvig  was  the 
Dutch  scholar,  Caryl  Gabriel  Cobet  (1813-1889),  whose 
mother,  however,  was  a  Frenchwoman,  and  Cobet  was 
bom  in  Paris.  He  showed  the  brilliancy  and  wit  of  the 
French,  though  his  education  was  carried  out  at  the 
Hague  and  at  Leyden.  It  is  said  that  on  entering  Leyden 
he  was  already  steeped  in  the  ancient  classics,  and  had  a 
verbal  familiarity  with  them.  His  doctor's  dissertation 
excited  high  hopes,  and  the  Royal  Institute  gave  him  leave 
of  absence  for  five  years  so  that  he  might  study  Greek  manu- 
scripts in  Italy.  On  his  return,  he  was  made  an  extraor- 
dinary professor  at  Leyden,  and  his  inaugural  address  has 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  425 

become  a  classic  in  the  field  of  text  criticism.^  The  story  is 
told  that  during  one  of  the  symposia  oi  the  professors,  they 
fell  to  arguing  on  a  certain  point  of  usage  in  the  Greek 
drama.  Cobet  was  on  fire  with  enthusiasm,  and  so  pelted 
his  colleagues  with  quotations  from  ^schylus,  Sophocles, 
and  Euripides  and  from  the  Fragments,  that  they  gave 
way  and  admitted  his  claim.  Then,  with  a  roguish  smile, 
he  informed  them  that  most  of  his  quotations  were  spurious, 
that  he  had  invented  them  on  the  spot  as  a  bit  of  academic 
play.  Not  long  after  the  retirement  of  Petrus  Hoffman 
Peerlkamp,  who  had  been  full  professor  (1848)  and  who  is 
best  known  by  his  critical  work  in  Horace,  Cobet  succeeded 
him.  He  was  the  greatest  Greek  scholar  of  modem  Hol- 
land. Dr.  Sandys  recalls  the  meeting  of  Cobet  and  Mad- 
vig  at  the  tercentenary  celebration  at  Leyden  in  1875. 
A  hush  was  felt  when  Cobet's  turn  came  to  address  his 
great  contemporary  in  Latin,  for  Cobet  was  first  of  all  a 
Hellenist  as  Madvig  was  first  of  all  a  Latinist.  But 
Cobet's  words  were  full  of  grace,  compliment,  and  dex- 
terity, so  that  Madvig  began  his  reply:  Post  Cohetum 
Latine  loqui  vereor?  Cobet's  most  enduring  work  is  to  be 
found  in  the  numerous  lectures,  papers,  and  examples  of 
criticism  that  are  contained  in  his  VaricE  Lectiones  and  his 
NovcB  Lectiones,  which  with   Madvig's    Adversaria   and 

1  Oratio  de  Arte  Emendandi  (Amsterdam,  1840). 

*  Cobet  did  later  (in  1877)  criticise  the  Latin  of  Madvig.  His  own 
was  superb,  —  flashing,  graceful,  sinuous,  reflecting  his  remarkable 
personality. 


426  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

Opuscula,  and  the  addresses  of  Edouard  Toumier  (183 1- 
1899), of  Paris, might  well  constitute  a  Corpus  of  modem 
critical  work. 

The  German  influence  on  France  in  classical  studies  has 
been  more  subtle  and  less  direct  than  upon  other  peoples, 
mainly  because  of  the  difference  of  race  and  the  clash  of 
politics,  and  also  because  of  the  French  genius  which  cre- 
ates and  transforms  in  its  own  way.  If  less  profound  than 
the  German,  it  is  more  lucid,  and,  one  may  say,  more  logical. 
Yet  since  the  great  discoveries  were  made  by  Germans 
or  those  allied  with  them,  and  since  even  in  the  department 
of  Romance  Philology  the  more  minute  and  careful  work 
has  been  done  by  Germans,*  the  genuine  scholars  of  France 
have  accepted  and  merely  elucidated  what  the  Germans 
found.  Because,  however,  they  have  lacked  originality  one 
passes  over  their  later  work  with  the  mention  of  a  few  con- 
spicuous names,  such  as  those  of  men  who  wrote  with  charm 
—  H.  J.  G.  Patin  (i 792-1876),  whose  studies  in  the  Greek 
and  late  Latin  poets  are  learned  and  widely  read;  Desire 
Nisard  and  Charles  Nisard,  who  set  themselves  to  making 
the  classics  popular  even  at  the  cost  of  inaccuracy ;  Emile 
Egger  (1813-1885),  author  of  the  first  treatise  on  Com- 
parative Grammar  (1852);  the  able  lexicographers,  L.  M. 
Quicherat  (i 799-1884),  author  of  a  Latin  thesaurus,  and 
Emile  Littre  (1801-1881) ;  the  distinguished  palaeographer, 
Charles  Graux  (1852-1882),  whose  brief  life  was  one  of 
^  E.g.  Dietz,  Korting,  Meyer-Liibke,  Grober. 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  427 

remarkable  achievement;  and  Otto  Riemann  (1853-1891), 
best  known  for  his  work  in  Livy.  The  French  School  in 
Athens  was  founded  as  early  as  1846,  and  has  helped  to 
stimulate  such  archaeologists  as  Bumouf,  Fustel  de  Cou- 
langes,  Perrot,  Collignon,  Homolle,  and  Reimann, — with 
scores  of  others  whose  names  are  known  to  every  scholar. 
Victor  Henry  (1850-1907)  wrote  comparative  grammars 
that  were  translated  into  English,  and  his  wide  knowledge 
of  all  languages  made  him  a  universal  authority.  One 
of  the  most  brilliant  expositors  of  Roman  life  and  Latin 
literature  was  Gaston  Boissier  (1823-1908),  whose  lectures 
were  absorbing  and  whose  books  were  fascinating  {Ciceron 
et  ses  Amis  (Eng,  trans.,  1892),  U Opposition  sous  les 
Cesars  (1874-1875),  La  Fin  du  Paganisme  (1891),  and 
UAfrique  Romaine   (1895)). 

Archaeology  in  its  broad  sense  and  Fine  Art  owe  less 
to  Germany  in  their  development  than  other  branches  of 
Classical  Philology.  To  be  sure,  there  is  Winckelmann,  the 
father  of  archaeologists,  and  Lessing,  his  greatest  critic, 
but  scholars  of  other  nations  share  the  honours  with  these 
two  illustrious  men.  We  have  seen  how  early  the  Arundel 
Marbles  were  admired  in  England,  and  how  the  British 
Museum  was  created  for  the  repository  of  rare  objects  of 
antiquity.  The  Louvre  in  Paris  was  begun  in  1204  and 
converted  into  the  beginnings  of  an  art  museum  by  Fran- 
cois I.  Upon  it  were  lavished  all  the  genius  of  men  like 
Pierre  Lescot  and  Jean  Goujin,  and  its  beautification  con- 


428  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

tinued  through  the  Napoleonic  wars,  during  which  the 
great  Emperor  filled  the  galleries  with  the  richest  spoils 
of  the  countries  he  conquered,  as  did  his  nephew  Napo- 
leon III.  Its  collections  undoubtedly  surpass  in  richness, 
beauty,  and  value  those  of  any  other  structure  in  the  world 
to-day.  Even  those  of  the  Vatican  must  be  reckoned 
inferior.  Throughout  France,  the  provincial  museums 
exhibit  separate  collections,  though  it  is  becoming  the 
policy  of  the  government  to  draw  these  gradually  to  Paris. 
Side  by  side  with  archaeology  stands  history,  and  here 
the  German  influence  is  very  great.  There  are  in  Ger- 
many editions  of  the  Latin  fragments  by  H.  Peter, 
Friedrich  von  Schlegel,  Johann  Wilhehn  von  Siivern 
(d.  1829),  while  Karl  Bottiger  (1760)  wrote  Sabina,  the 
daily  life  of  a  Roman  lady,  a  model  for  Bekker's  well- 
known  Callus  and  Charicles  (i 796-1 846).  More  serious 
historians  of  Rome  were  Ernst  Curtius^  and  Theodor 
Mommsen^  (1817-1903),  of  whom  we  shall  have  more 
to  say.  But  in  England  there  were  giants  of  history, — 
Connop  Thirlwall  (1797-1875)  and  George  Grote  (1794- 
1871) — each  having  written  a  monumental  history  of 
Greece,  Thirlwall' s  being  called  "  a  Tory  history,"  and 
Grote's,  "  a  Whig  history,"  from  the  evident  partiality 
of  their  respective  authors.  Thus,  Thirlwall,  a  lecturer  in 
Trinity,  was  in  sympathy  with  the  English  patriciate, 
while  Grote  was  a  banker,  not  a  university  man,  and  fully  in 

'  See  the  Deutsche  Rundschau  (Berlin,  1896). 
'  See  Infra,  pp.  443-444. 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  429 

sympathy  with  the  Athenian  democracy.  Of  late  years,  a 
young  ItaHan,  Guilelmo  Ferrero,  has  sought  to  throw  a  new 
light  upon  the  problems  of  ancient  Rome,  though  he  seems 
largely  to  have  drawn  upon  the  French  history  of  the 
Romans  by  Jean  Victor  Duruy.  Other  French  classical 
historians  have  been  Napoleon  III,  whose  Casar  deserves 
attention,  Francois  Villemain,  a  rhetorical  lecturer,  Aubin 
Louis  Millen  (1759-1818),  who  gave  a  remarkably  full 
description  of  the  Roman  relics  in  the  south  of  France ;  and 
Jean  Francois  Boissonade  (1774-1857),  who  spent  most  of 
his  time  in  studying  the  later  Greeks,  of  the  decadence  of 
whom  he  modestly  said  that  "  the  mediocrity  of  their  talent 
was  suited  to  the  mediocrity  of  his  scholarship."  But  his 
work  was  prodigious.  In  nine  years  (1823-1832)  he 
produced  twenty-four  volumes  of  annotated  Greek  poets, 
and  his  was  the  editio  princeps  of  Babrias  (1844).  We 
must  note,  also,  though  many  names  are  omitted : 
Barthelemy  St.  Hilaire  (1805-1895),  lecturer  on  Greek  and 
Roman  philosophy,  translator  of  Aristotle  (1891),  and 
publicist  as  well  as  scholar,  besides  the  Due  de  Luynes 
(1803-1867),  numismatist  and  explorer,  Charles  Lenor- 
mant  (1816-1881),  a  student  of  ancient  monuments;  and 
his  son,  Francois  (1837-  ),  a  scholar  of  the  most 
varied  attainments,  best  known  for  his  minute  studies  at 
Eleusis  with  reference  to  the  Mysteries.^ 

1  In  modern  Italy,  the  name  of  Cardinal  Angelo  Mai  (1782-1854)  is 
to  be  remembered  for  his  study  of  the  manuscripts  in  the  Vatican  and 


43°  HISTORY   or    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Since  the  splendid  career  of  Cobet,  the  Dutch  univer- 
sities have  had  no  classical  scholar  of  the  first  order,  but 
they  honourably  maintain  the  traditions  of  the  past.  They 
are  Groningen  (founded  in  1614),  Utrecht  (1636),  Leyden 
1575),  and  Amsterdam,  whose  Athenasum  was  raised  to  the 
rank  of  a  university  in  1877.  The  greatest  number  of 
students  is  to  be  found  at  the  oldest  seats  of  learning,  — 
Leyden  and  Utrecht.  There  were  two  more  universities 
in  Holland, — Franeker  and  Hardervyk,  —  but  these  were 
suppressed  by  Napoleon  I. 

Belgium,  as  a  separate  state,  is  of  recent  existence, 
having  formed  a  part  of  Holland  until  the  revolution  of 
183 1.     It  contains  more  than  one  famous  and  ancient 

Ambrosian  libraries  of  which  he  had  charge.  Some  of  his  discoveries 
were  of  works  hitherto  unknown  to  exist,  as  a  part  of  Dionysius  Hali- 
carnassensis,  fragments  of  the  lost  Vidularia  of  Plautus,  and  remains 
of  Cicero's  lost  treatise,  De  Repjiblica  (1822).  Since  Comparative 
Philology  has  been  in  vogue,  Domenico  Pezzi  (1844-1906),  and 
Graziadio  Ascoli  (1829-1907)  are  the  greatest  names  among  the  com- 
parative philologists  of  Italy.  We  have  already  mentioned  Vin- 
cenzo  De-Vit  (1810-1892)  as  the  reviser  of  Forcellini's  great  lexicon, 
and  Fr.  Corradini  (1820-1898)  whose  like  task  was  completed  by 
Perin  in  1890.  Studies  in  early  Latin  were  ably  undertaken  by 
Giovanni  Battista  Gandino  (1877-1905) ;  while  Domenico  Com- 
paretti,  professor  of  Greek  at  Pisa,  is  widely  known  by  his  account 
of  Vergil  in  the  Middle  Ages  (1873;  Eng.  trans.  1895).  Luigi 
Canina,  Bartholomeo  Borghesi,  and  Francesco  Maria  Avellino 
were  all  distinguished  archaeologists;  but  first  of  all  stood  Giovanni 
Battista  de  Rossi  (there  were  two  of  the  name),  who  made  collections 
of  inscriptions,  especially  of  those  in  the  Catacombs,  and  of  Christian 
Archaeology. 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  43 1 

university  and  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of  its  learned 
societies.  The  Catholic  University  of  Louvain  was 
founded  in  1426,  having  separate  colleges,  as  in  England. 
Of  these  the  best  known  was  the  Collegium  Trilingue,  over 
which  Erasmus  for  a  time  presided,  cultivating  the  three 
languages,  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin.  Lipsius  also  lec- 
tured here  and  styled  the  University  "  the  Belgian 
Athens."  Louvain  has  had  its  vicissitudes,  having  been 
closed  by  the  Austrian  Emperor,  Joseph  II,  and  by  the 
French  in  1797;  but  in  1834  it  was  refounded  as  a  strictly 
Catholic  University  and  has  resumed  its  old  prestige. 
Besides  Louvain,  there  are  Ghent  (1816),  Liege  (1816), 
and  the  "  free  university  "  of  Brussels  (1834).  As  Dutch 
scholarship  tends  toward  textual  criticism,  so  that  of  the 
Belgians  has  by  preference  turned  to  archaeology  and 
constitutional  antiquity,  these  being  represented  chiefly  by 
Jean  Baron  de  Witte  (1868-1S89),  a  scholar  largely  influ- 
enced by  the  Germans;  J.  E.  G.  Roulez  (1806-1878), 
Professor  of  Greek  at  Ghent,  and  an  authority  on  ancient 
music;  Joseph  Gantrelle  (1809-1893),  Professor  of  Latin 
at  Ghent,  a  defender  of  the  classics  and  editor  of  the 
Agricola  (1874),  Germnnia  (1877),  and  the  Historic 
(1881),  besides  publishing  a  special  study  of  the  stj'le  of 
Tacitus  (1882),  to  whom,  indeed,  he  devoted  his  chief 
labours.^     The  influence  of  Germany  is  plainly  seen  in  the 

1  Other  Belgian  scholars  of   note  were  Auguste  Wagener  (1829- 
1896),    largely    influenced    by    German    teaching;    Louis    Chretien 


432  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

work  of  the  Belgian  scholars,  because  at  so  many  of  their 
universities,  Germans  have  held  professorships  (e.g. 
J.  D.  Fuss;  G.  J.  Bekker),  yet  the  native  Gallic  strain 
has  made  Belgian  scholars  not  only  profound  but 
lucid. 

The  Scandinavians,  as  we  have  already  noted,  are  among 
the  most  original  of  classical  scholars.  It  is  unnecessary, 
however,  to  trace  their  work  farther  than  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  for  it  is  only  then  that  Danes, 
Swedes,  and  Norwegians  became  conspicuous  for  their 
prowess  in  learning.  Their  universities  to-day  are,  first 
of  all,  Copenhagen  (founded  in  1478)  and  one  of  the  most 
famous  in  Northern  Europe;  Upsala,  in  Sweden  (1480); 
Christiania  (181 2),  the  Norwegian  State  University; 
besides  Lund  in  Sweden  (1666).  The  most  famous 
Scandinavian  scholars  have  been  already  named,  — 
Rask,  Madvig,  Niebuhr,  and  Vemer, — but  several  others 
now  require  attention. 

Johan  Louis  Ussing  (i 820-1 905)  was  the  close  associate 
of  Madvig  and  was  the  most  celebrated  Scandinavian 
archaeologist,  writing    his  dissertation  on  the  subject  of 

Roersch  (1831-1891),  of  Liege,  and  noted  for  his  valuable  reviews  and 
monographs;  F^Iix  Neve  (1816-1893),  of  Louvain,  orientalist  by- 
choice,  but  classicist  by  profession;  Jean  Joseph  Thonissen  (1816- 
1891),  a  jurist  who  wrote  a  long  work  on  primitive  criminology 
in  Greece  and  Rome;  and  finally,  Pierre  Willems  (1840-1898), 
author  of  a  standard  work  on  the  political  institutions  of  ancient 
Rome  (Louvain,  1870),  and  another  on  the  Roman  Senate. 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  433 

Greek  vases.  He  travelled  for  two  years  in  Greece  and 
Italy  and  founded  the  Museum  of  Classical  Archaeology 
at  Copenhagen,  where  he  was  made  Reader,  The  influ- 
ence of  Madvig  led  him  to  more  closely  philological  work, 
so  that  he  took  part  in  editing  Li\y  and  annotated  Plautus 
on  his  own  account  (1875-1887).  As  a  text-editor  he  was 
conservative,  unlike  most  Scandinavians,  who  are  possessed 
of  a  cacoethes  emendandi,  of  which  the  Swedish  Ljundberg 
furnishes  an  awful  example  in  his  edition  of  Horace  (1872), 
where  out  of  all  the  lines  he  has  left  barely  sixty  unaltered 
(Reinach).  In  Iceland,  there  arose  one  splendid  scholar, 
Sveinbjoin  Egelsson  (1791-1852),  whose  thunderous  trans- 
lations of  all  Homer  unite  a  fire  and  splendour  that  rival 
the  Sagas  of  the  North,  while  they  recall  them.  Esaias 
Tegn^r  of  Lund  (i 782-1846),  the  most  popular  poet  in 
Swedish  literature,  so  that  in  1808  he  was,  to  quote  Dr. 
Sandys,  "  the  Tyrtaeus  of  Sweden,"  was  professor  of 
Greek,  but  insisted  more  on  Latin,  while  Karl  Vilhelm 
Linder  (1825-1882)  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  Greek. 

Sophus  Bugge  (1833-1907)  not  only  investigated  conso- 
nantal changes,  studied  Latin  under  Madvig,  in  Berlin, 
Sanskrit  under  Weber  and  Bopp,  and  Germanic  philology 
under  Haupt,^  but  he  investigated  further  the  principles  of 

1  Moritz  Haupt  (1808-1874)  was  a  pupil  of  Hermann,  whose 
daughter  he  married.  His  was  a  vigorous,  impetuous  personality. 
He  is  said  to  have  taught  Nettleship  in  his  lectures  the  value  of 
Bentley.  He  himself  learned  from  Hermann's  Baccha  what  is 
meant  by  "  really  understanding  an  author."     He  was  appointed 

2  F 


434  HISTORY    OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Verner's  Law.     He  is  mentioned  here,  however,  because  of 
his  criticism  of  a  very  important  work  which  caused  a  revo- 
lution   in    Latin  studies    everywhere.     Wilhelm    Corssen 
(1820-1875),  a  teacher  at  Schulpforta,  undertook  an  acute 
and   accurate   investigation   of   the  sounds   of   the   Latin 
language.     Materials  for  this  work  had  been  gathered  by 
Albert  Denary  (1807-1860),  while  further  notes  had  been 
made  by  Friedrich  Ritschl    (1806-1876)    in  his  Plautine 
studies.     But    no    preceding     scholar   had    made    Latin 
phonetics  a  definite   object  until  Corssen  appeared  with 
his    Ueber    Aussprache,    Vokalismus    und   Betonung  der 
lateinischen  Sprache}     In  it,  Corssen  sought  to  study  the 
sounds  {i.e.  the  pronunciation)  of  the  Latin  language,  using 
not  only  the  earliest  literary  sources,  and  the  most  ancient 
inscriptions,  but  also  the  Italic  dialects  such  as  Faliscan, 
Oscan,  and  Umbrian,  with  a  vast  collection  of  quotations 
from   the  Roman  grammarians,   whose  work  had  been 
little  studied.     All  these  means  of  information  Corssen  used 
with  scholarly  ability,  and  his  results  as  to  phonetics  have 
stood  the   test  of  time,  so  that  his  book  is  definitive.     It 
was  needed,  for  the  confusion  in  the  pronunciation  of  Latin 
had  become  great.     There  was  no  standard,  and  there  had 
been  none  since  the  time  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

after  Lachmann's  death  to  fill  the  latter's  chair  at  Berh'n.  Though 
his  Fach  was  Germanic  philology,  the  list  of  his  published  works  on 
Greek  and  Latin  is  a  very  long  one. 

1  Published  in  1 858-1859  at  Leipzig,  where  it  received  a  prize  for 
scholarship;    reeditcd  in   1868-1870,  2  vols. 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  435 

Each  nation  had  pronounced  Latin  as  though  it  were  its 
own  language,  and  while  on  the  continent  of  Europe  this 
was  of  no  great  consequence,  since  the  vowel  sounds  were 
generally  the  same,  it  shut  Englishmen,  and  later,  Ameri- 
cans, away  from  using  Latin  as  an  intelligible  medium 
of  speech.  Lipsius,  Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  Milton  had 
all  complained  of  this,  but  there  was  no  one  to  guide  men 
until  Corssen  appeared,  spurred  by  the  necessity  imposed 
by  the  new  science  of  Comparative  Philology.  He 
showed  clearly  the  phonetic  basis  for  the  "  Roman  "  sys- 
tem, and  after  some  grumbling,  every  university  has 
adopted  it.  In  England  it  met  with  much  opposition 
from  the  public  schools,  and  even  to-day  it  is  not  commonly 
employed;  though  in  the  universities  and  in  advanced 
work  it  is  not  only  accepted,  but  taught.^  In  the  United 
States,  where  colleges  have  been  founded  from  many 
countries,  Corssen's  authoritative  statements  were  soon 
received,  because  it  gave  to  students  one  single,  accurate 
pronunciation  instead  of  many  inaccurate  ones;  so  that 
to-day  the  phonetic  system  is  universal  both  in  school, 
college,  and  university.^  Curiously  enough  the  phonetic 
system  had  been  anticipated  by  an  American  of  German 
parentage,  Dr.  Haldcman,  of  Philadelphia,  though  he  had 

1  See  the  more  recent  English  grammars  of  Latin,  such  as  Kennedy's, 
Roby's,  and  the  luminous  work  of  Lindsay,  The  Latin  Language, 
(Oxford,  1894),  chh.  2-4. 

^  The  standard  work  on  Latin  pronunciation  is  that  of  Seelmann, 
Ueber  die  Aussprache  des  Laiein  (Stuttgart,  1885). 


436  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL    PHILOLOGY 

access  only  to  the  Latin  grammarians  and  to  written  litera- 
ture rather  than  to  dialects  and  inscriptions.  This  book 
is  entitled  Elements  of  Latin  Pronunciation  (185 1),  and  was 
finished  before  Corssen's  work  appeared.  An  indepen- 
dent attempt  to  reach  the  same  end  was  made  by  Professor 
Richardson  of  the  University  of  Rochester,  and  he  did 
arrive  at  many  of  Corssen's  results  (1859),  though  dififering 
from  him  grotesquely  in  other  conclusions.  Corssen  spent 
the  last  years  of  his  life  in  Rome,  where  he  died,  it  was 
said,  of  disappointment  and  chagrin.  His  Aussprache  to 
this  day  is  an  authority.  Flushed  by  his  success,  however, 
he  undertook  the  task  of  solving  the  problem  that  still 
awaits  solution,  —  the  origin  and  linguistic  affinities  of  the 
Etruscans,  that  strange  people  who  lived  in  Italy  and  at 
one  time  conquered  the  greater  part  of  it,  yet  who,  in  ap- 
pearance as  in  language  and  customs,  were  like  neither  the 
Latins,  the  Umbrians,  or  the  Oscans,  but  suggested  an 
oriental  origin.  Corssen  resolved  to  dispel  this  mystery. 
In  his  colossal  work,  Ueher  die  Sprache  der  Etrusker,^  he 
lavished  all  the  powers  of  his  intellect  and  all  the  vast 
materials  at  his  command.  For  a  moment,  so  great  was 
his  prestige,  the  learned  world  believed  that  he  had  suc- 
ceeded, yet  criticism  soon  showed  that  he  had  failed,  and 
he  went  down  to  his  death  with  the  sneers  of  his  late 
friends  to  smooth  the  way. 

^  Leipzig,  1874-1875,  2  vols.     See  Deecke,  Corssen  und  die  Sprache 
der  Etrusker  (Stuttgart,  1875).     Deecke  edited  the  Etrusker,  in  1877. 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  437 

Practically  all  that  is  known  about  the  Etruscans  was 
known  before  Corssen  turned  his  attention  to  the  subject. 
In  1826,  the  Royal  Society  of  Berlin  oflfered  a  prize  for  the 
best  essay  on  the  Etruscans.  In  1828  an  elaborate 
monograph  on  the  subject  was  presented  by  Karl  Otfried 
Miilleri  (i 797-1840).  Already  Muller  had  done  much. 
He  had  felt  the  influence  of  Niebuhr  and  had  studied  under 
Boeckh  at  Berlin,  and  both  had  aroused  his  interest  in 
historical  topics.  A  monograph  on  iEgina  and  the  ^gin- 
etan  marbles  was  his  first  published  work,  and  in  181 9, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  he  was  made  Professor  of  Classical 
Learning  in  Gottingen,  where  he  lectured  on  Archaeology 
and  art.  His  book  upon  the  Etruscans  contains  all  that 
was  known  until  recent  years.  He  did  not  attempt  to 
establish  a  theory,  like  Corssen,  but  only  to  present  the 
facts  and  to  make  suggestive  comments;  and  that  is  all 
that  can  be  done  down  to  the  present  day.  Muller  was 
interested  in  mythology,  religion,  literature,  and  upon 
especial  classical  authors,  such  as  Pindar,  ^Eschylus, 
and  Herodotus  among  the  Greeks,  and  among  the  Romans, 
writers  of  the  Silver  Period.  In  1833  an  edition  of  the 
Eumenides  with  dissertations  on  the  manner  of  presenting 
the  play  and  its  purport,  caused  much  interest,  as  shedding 
new  light  on  the  Greek  theatre;  and  the  author  was  not 
disturbed  when  even  Hermann   called  him  "  mistaken  " 

*  His  real  name  was  Karl  Muller,  but  as  this  was  and  is  so  frequent 
in  Germany  (like  John  Smith  in  England),  he  inserted  the  "  Otfried." 


438  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

and  "  presumptuous."  He  at  once  edited  the  fragments 
of  Varro,  De  Lingua  Latina,  and  later  of  Festus.  He 
died  at  Athens  and  was  buried  there  (1840).  He  had  done 
much  for  historical  research  and  for  the  methods  of  Niebuhr. 
His  acquaintance,  Friedrich  Gottlieb  Welcker  (1784-1868), 
who  long  survived  him,  turned  more  to  the  artistic  manner 
of  interpretation.  He  early  studied  at  Rome;  he  was 
professor  at  Giessen  (1808),  he  fought  as  a  volunteer 
against  Napoleon  (1814),  and  was  aftenvards  again  a 
professor,  first  at  Gottingen  and  then  at  Bonn,  where  he 
presided  over  the  first  Museum  of  Ancient  Art  ever  known. 
His  lectures  were  stimulating  by  reason  of  his  personality, 
and  his  reach  was  broad,  including  both  Greek  and  Latin 
poetry  and  the  mythology  of  Greece.  He  made  numerous 
translations,  wrote  monographs  on  many  subjects,  and  is 
especially  known  by  "  Welcker's  Cyclus,''^  or  Greek  Trag- 
edies in  Relation  to  the  Epic  Cycle}  It  has  been  said  of 
him  that  his  chief  strength  lay  in  interpretation,  while  that 
of  K.  O.  Miiller  was  in  historical  research. 

A  contemporary  of  great  fame  was  Otto  Jahn  (1813- 
1869),  also  given  to  archaeology.  He  was  at  various  times 
professor  at  Greifswald  (1842-1847),  at  Leipzig  (1847- 
1851),  at  Bonn  (1855-1869).  He  died  at  Gottingen. 
Though  an  archeeologist  and  the  author  of  many  mono- 
graphs, he  will  be  longest  remembered  by  his  critical 
revisions  of  Persius  (1843)  and  Juvenal  (1851),  with  an 

1 3  vols.,  1839-1844. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  439 

edition  of  both  in  the  year  before  his  death.  For  text- 
books he  edited  the  Cupid  and  Psyche  of  Apuleius,  the 
Athenian  Acropolis  from  Pausanias,  the  Electra  of 
Sophocles,  the  Symposium  of  Plato,  and  the  Treatise  on 
the  Sublime  ascribed  to  Longinus.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible here  to  enumerate  his  minor  treatises  on  artistic 
subjects,  whose  very  titles  fascinate  and  attract/ 

Classical  literature  treated  either  with  deep  learning  or 
with  distinction  was  a  subject  for  study  at  all  times, 
though  the  Germans  are  not  happy,  as  a  rule,  in  that  which 
requires  the  aesthetic  as  well  as  the  historic  element.  We 
have  already  mentioned  Bernhardy  as  an  historian  of  both 
the  two  great  literatures.  K.  O.  Miiller  began  a  history 
of  Greek  Literature  at  the  request  of  the  London  Society 
for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge,  in  1836,  but  he  died 
before  its  completion.  The  full  text  was  not  published 
in  English  until  1858,  when  Dr.  J.  W.  Donaldson  finished 
it  in  a  three-volume  edition.  Yet  much  has  been  done 
for  classical  literature  by  German  scholars,  many  of  whom 
translated,  and  others  wrote  special  monographs  on  par- 
ticular authors,  such  as  the  illuminating  papers  on  Plautus 
(Parerga)  by  Friedrich  Ritschl  (1806-1876),  who  also 
wrote  of  the  literary  activity  of  Varro  and  the  laws  of  the 

'Latin  archaeologists  are  Conrad  Bursian  (1830-1883),  the  his- 
torian of  classical  studies  in  Germany;  Otto  Benndorf  (1838-1907)  ; 
Peter  Willen  Forchhammer  (1801-1894),  the  topographer;  and 
Heinrich  Kiepert  (1818-1899)  the  well-known  cartographer,  Professor 
of  Geography  at  Berlin,  and  maker  of  many  maps  and  charts. 


440  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Satumian  verse.^  More  strictly  historians  of  literature 
were  J.  A.  Fabricius  (1668-1736),  who  condensed  and 
compiled  the  whole  of  the  classic  writers,  without  whose 
aid  no  subsequent  history  of  either  Greek  or  Latin  has 
been  WTitten;  Teuffel,  already  mentioned;  and  Otto 
Ribbeck  (182 7-1 898),  professor  successively  in  five  uni- 
versities, but  passing  his  last  years  at  Leipzig.  To  him 
we  owe  much  of  the  history  and  criticism  of  the  early 
Latin  dramatists,  whose  fragments  he  edited  (3d  ed.,  1897- 
1898),  a  study  of  Roman  tragedy  under  the  Republic,^ 
with  editions  and  conservative  texts  of  Vergil,  Horace,  and 
Juvenal.  His  most  interesting  work  is  his  history  of 
Roman  poetry.^ 

Since  the  Middle  Ages,  some  lost  fragments  of  impor- 
tant authors  have  been  discovered.  Such  is  the  long  episode 
of  the  Cena  Trimalchionis  from  the  Latin  novel  of  Petronius, 
edited  by  Friedlander;  the  so-called  Anthologia  Palati- 
nas,  already  mentioned;  quite  recently,  fragments  of 
Bacchylides    {ed.   prin.    Kenyon) ;    Babrius    (122  fables, 

*  He  is  best  known  by  his  monumental  edition  of  Plautus  in  con- 
junction with  Gustav  Lowe,  Georg  Gotz,  and  Friedrich  Scholl. 
Ritschl  himself  edited  and  reedited  nine  plays  (1848-1854),  and  his 
three  coadjutors  were  assisted  by  Alfred  Fleckeisen  (1820-1899), 
Wilhelm  Studemund  (i  843-1 889),  who  also  was  a  noted  Greek 
palaeographer,  Wilhelm  Wagner  (i 843-1 8S0),  and  especially  in  the 
prosody  by  the  researches  of  Wilhelm  Corssen,  already  mentioned. 

^1875. 

'3  vols.,  1859-1868;   abridged,  1895.     See  a  volume  compiled  by 

his  friends,  Otto  Ribbeck,  Ein  Bild  (1901). 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  44I 

ed.  pHn.  Boissonade);  a  lost  treatise  by  Aristotle  on  the 
polity  of  the  Athenians  {ed.  prin.  Kenyon) ;  ^  and  fairly 
complete  plays  of  Menander  (ed.  Lefebvre  in  1907, 
Headlam  in  1908);  with  seven  poems  of  Herondas  {ed. 
prin.  Kenyon,  last  ed.  by  Creuzer,  Leipzig,  1894).  It  is 
believed  that  the  papyri  of  Egypt  will  yield  new  treasures, 
as  they  have  in  the  past  five  years,  and  scholars  look  eagerly 
for  other  plays  of  Menander,  some  of  the  exoteric  works  of 
Aristotle,  and  it  may  even  be  the  famous  lost  books  of  Livy. 
Archaeology  (to  revert  to  a  subject  already  spoken 
of)  has  been  greatly  enriched  by  the  compilation  of 
corpora  to  each  of  the  classic  languages.  With  the 
aid  of  Epigraphy,  a  collection  of  Greek  inscriptions 
has  been  made  by  Boeckh,  who  edited  the  first  two 
volumes  of  the  Corpus  Insert pHonum  GrcBcarum  (1825- 
1843),  followed  by  other  volumes  by  Franz  (1845-1853), 
the  fourth  by  E.  Curtius  and  A.  Kirchhoff  (1826-1908), 
and  the  whole  completed  by  the  Index  of  H.  Rochl 
(1877).  Assistance  was  given  to  the  work  by  Wilhelm 
Dittenberger  (1840-1906),  professor  at  Halle.  He  did 
much  also  for  the  Corpus  hiscriptionum  Atticarum  (1878- 
1882),  and  prepared  himsef  a  Sylloge  of  Greek  inscrip- 
tions that  are  especially  important  (1882,  2d  ed.  1898-1901). 
Apart  from  his  epigraphical  work,  Dittenberger  was  a  spe- 
cialist in  Cassar,  having  prepared  eleven  editions  of  Kraner's 
Commentary.  Georg  Kaibel  (1849-1901),  editor  of  the 
^  See  Gilbert,  Greek  Constitutional  Antiquities,  1895. 


442  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Electra  of  Sophocles  (1896)  and  of  Athenaeus  (1886-1890), 
collected  a  volume  of  some  1200  epigrams  (1878)  copied 
from  stones  {ex  lapidihus)  and  covering  a  thousand  years.^ 
Latin  Epigraphy  was  pursued  in  a  desultory  way  for  a 
long  time,  chiefly  in  Italy.  The  Romans  do  not  appear 
to  have  collected  inscriptions  as  the  Greeks  did.  It  was 
only  at  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  Rome 
became  a  Christian  Mecca,  that  pilgrims  copied  some  of  the 
most  famous  inscriptions  to  carry  home.  With  the 
Renaissance  came  a  genuine  interest  in  them  as  in 
gems  and  carved  work.  Cola  di  Rienzi  (about  1344) 
prepared  a  topographical  account  of  Rome,  in  which  he 
drew  largely  on  inscriptions;  while  Poggio  Bracciolini^ 
collected  them.  Unfortunately,  many  were  forged,^  and 
some  of  them  have  only  recently  been  stamped  as  spurious, 
mainly  from  the  unscrupulous  hands  of  Pirro  Ligorio  of 
Naples.  The  first  printed  collection  of  inscriptions  seems 
to  have  been  that  of  Ravenna  (1489).  For  Gruter's  great 
work  the  reader  is  referred  to  another  place.*  The  study 
was  taken  up  by  others,  among  them  Raffaele  Fabretti 
(1618-1700),  but  it  was  L.  A.  Muratori  (1672-1750)  who 
gave  a  great  impulse  to  Epigraphy  by  his  Novus  The- 
saurus Veterum  Inscriptionmn  (4  vols.,  Milan,  1739- 
1742),  and    to  Palaeography  by  his  researches  in  Milan 

1  Other  noted  Greek  epigraphists  were  Kohlen,  —  and  outside  of 
Germany,  CEconomides,  Dobree,  Riemann. 

2  Supra,  pp.  276-9.  ^  Supra,  pp.  284-5.  *  Supra,  p.  342. 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  443 

and  other  seats  of  learning.  Bartolommeo  Borghesi 
(d.  1859)  made  epigraphy  a  science,  and  to  him  is  due  the 
splendid  work  that  has  been  accomplished  in  this  field. 
Both  the  French  Academy  and  that  of  Berlin  planned  a 
vast  Corpus  of  all  existing  Latin  inscriptions,  but  this  was 
not  undertaken  until  1863,  when  the  first  volume  of  the 
present  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum  appeared  under 
the  editorship  of  Theodor  Mommsen  and  Wilhelm  Henzen 
(1816-1887).  The  work  has  steadily  progressed,  volume 
by  volume,  with  supplements,  but  it  will  probably  never 
be  wholly  finished,  owing  to  new  discoveries.^ 

The  greatest  mind  since  Scaliger's,  if  not  the  greatest 
mind  of  all  time,  is  recalled  in  the  illustrious  name  of 
Theodor  Mommsen  (1819-1893).  Like  so  many  dis- 
tinguished men  of  letters,  he  became  famous  for  his 
versatility,  so  that  in  him  we  find  the  young  poet,  the 
ardent  politician,  the  close  student  of  inscriptions,  the 
master  of  ancient  constitutional  law,  and  finally  the  his- 
torian of  the  Roman  Empire, — chronologist,  numisma- 
tist, and  lyrist.  It  was  he  who  made  the  plan  for  the 
splendid  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum,  in  1847,  as 
against  A.  W.  Zumpt,  and  to  Mommsen  the  Academy 
entrusted  the  scheme  as  he  outlined  it. 

1  See  the  article  "  Inscriptions  "  in  vol.  xiii  of  the  ninth  edition  of 
the  EncydopcBdia  Britannica.  It  was  written  by  Professor  Emil 
Hiibner  of  Berlin,  himself  a  famous  archaeologist.  On  the  Corpus 
especially  see  Egbert,  Latin  Inscriptions,  pp.  6-15  (New  York, 
1896). 


444  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

He  came  to  write  his  History  of  Rome  with  a  certain 
naivety.  While  spending  a  vacation  with  his  father-in- 
law,  the  old  gentleman  said,  "  Why,  yes,  Theodor,  your 
studies  have  fitted  you  for  just  such  a  work."  Young 
Mommscn  flushed  with  pleasure,  and  at  once  began  the 
history.  Out  of  the  fulness  of  his  mind,  he  made  no 
preparation,  but  just  wrote  on,  chapter  after  chapter, 
book  after  book,  and  volume  after  volume,  until,  instead 
of  composing  a  "  popular"  work,  he  had  poured  the  wealth 
of  his  wide  knowledge  into  a  book  which  is  informing  in 
matter  and  brilliant  in  style.  It  aroused  a  storm  of  con- 
troversy, the  more  so  as  Mommsen  had  not  thought  it 
worth  while  to  equip  it  with  footnotes.  These  were 
given  later  by  a  sixth  volume,  and  another  book  entitled 
Romische  Forschungen. 

The  History  of  Rome  is  in  reality  a  protest  of  New 
Germany  against  the  old  feudalism  which  Napoleon  had 
failed  to  shatter.  It  pleaded  for  a  brilliant  dictator,  and 
told  the  story  of  Julius  Cassar,  the  greatest  man  who 
ever  lived,  as  the  ideal  head  of  a  State.  He  lashed  the 
weakling,  Cicero,  and  wrote  some  of  his  papers  with  great 
flashes.  No  one  has  refuted  him  and  neither  Gisner  nor 
Ferrero  has  made  a  satisfactory  response.  The  climax 
of  Roman  grandeur  comes  with  Caesar;  and  Mommsen 
beholds  a  grandeur  in  the  North,  when  the  petty, 
ignorant  squires  of  Junkerthum  are  scattered  by  an 
enlightened  Dictator. 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  445 

A  picturesque  figure  among  archseologists  is  that  of 
Heinrich  Schliemann  (182 2-1 890),  at  fourteen  a  grocer's 
boy,  at  thirty-six  an  "Indigo  King"  in  St.  Petersburg 
with  a  fortune  that  grew  every  year.  He  then  betook 
himself  to  archaeology,  teaching  himself  Greek,  and  read- 
ing carefully.  He  believed  the  site  of  Troy  was  on  the 
hill  of  Hissarlik.  The  hill  was  opened  (1870-1873),  as 
he  had  Mycenee  explored  (1874-1876),  Troy  again  (1879), 
Archomenos  (1881),  and  very  successfully  Tiryns  (1885). 
Many  excavations  were  made,  quite  enough  to  justify 
the  Homeric  story,  and  to  shed  light  upon  Thucydides. 

Schliemann  chose  to  live  a  la  grecque  for  his  own 
gratification.  His  house  was  constructed  at  Athens,  and 
was  embellished  with  mosaics,  friezes,  and  illuminated 
Homeric  quotations.  He  married  a  Greek  wife,  who 
bore  him  a  girl  whom  he  called  Andromache,  and  a  boy, 
Agamemnon.  Even  his  porter  was  styled  Bellerophon. 
Just  as  he  was  about  to  explore  Crete,  death  came  on 
him  suddenly  at  Naples,  leaving  Dorpfeld  to  finish  the 
Trojan  discovery.^ 

It  may  be  said  that  all  of  Continental  Europe  felt  the 
influence  of  the  extraordinary  range  and  originality  of 
German  scholarship;  yet  of  England,  until  very  lately, 
this  has  been  less  true.  Great  Britain  has  had  her 
own  ideals,  her  own  traditions,  and  her  own  intellectual 
character,  and  her  learned  men  have  not  interchanged 

*  See  Schuchardt,  Schliemanns  Ausgrabimgen,  Eng.  trans.  (1890), 
containing  a  bibliography. 


446  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

their  acquisitions  with  any  other  country  to  the  extent  that 
even  Spain  and  Portugal  have  done.  This  has  not  been 
true  of  her  greatest  scholars,  such  as  Bentley,  for  example, 
but  in  general  the  British  distaste  for  foreigners  has  ex- 
tended even  to  their  learning.  Hence  the  German  influ- 
ence in  its  full  sweep  is  a  thing  of  the  past  two  or  three 
decades,  and  has  been  shown  in  the  persons  of  men  still 
living,  whose  names  are  (except  casually)  excluded  from 
this  survey.  A  passage  in  George  Eliot's  Middlemarch, 
where  young  Ladislaw  tries  to  make  Dorothea  see  how 
backward  is  her  husband,  Mr.  Casaubon,  in  modem 
scholarship,  says:  — 

"  If  Mr.  Casaubon  read  German,  he  would  save  himself  a  great 
deal  of  trouble.  ...  It  is  a  pity  that  it  [devoted  labour]  should 
be  thrown  away,  as  so  much  English  scholarship  is,  for  want  of 
knowing  what  is  being  done  by  the  rest  of  the  world." 

"I  do  not  understand  you,"  said  Dorothea. 

" I  merely  mean,"  said  Will  in  an  off-hand  way,  "that  the 
Germans  have  taken  the  lead  in  historical  inquiries,  and  they  laugh 
at  results  which  are  got  by  groping  about  in  woods  with  pocket- 
compasses,  while  they  have  made  good  roads." 

But  Great  Britain  had  a  scholarship  of  her  own,  a  schol- 
arship of  elegance,  and  again  of  sound  truth.  In  Greek 
and  Latin,  as  such,  she  surpassed  all  her  rivals.  No  verse 
or  prose  in  either  language  was  so  near  the  classical  stand- 
ards as  that  which  came  from  Oxford  or  from  Cambridge. 
The  Italian  school  of  Latinity  with  its  Ciceronianism  was 
near  to  that  of  England ;    while,  for  a  time  at  least,  the 


THE   GERMAN   INFLUENCE  447 

critical  work  of  the  Netherlands  was  stimulated  by  the 
example  of  Englishmen.  Names  such  as  those  of  Bentley, 
Porson,  Peter  Elmsley  (i 773-1825),  Thomas  Gaisford 
(i 779-1855),  C.  J.  Blomfield  (i 786-1857),  Paul  Dobree 
(i  782-1825),  James  Scholefeld  (i  789-1853),  Charles 
Badham  (1813-1884),  J.  W.  Donaldson  (1811-1861),  who 
finished  K.  O.  Muller's  Greek  literature,  W.  E.  Jelf  (181 1- 
1875),  George  Long  (1800-1879),  John  Conington 
(1825-1869),  the  first  professor  of  Latin  at  Oxford, 
Henry  Nettleship  (1839-1893),  who  with  Conington  pro- 
duced a  definitive  edition  and  translation  of  Persius,  and 
William  M.  Leake  (1777-1860)  — all  these  were  familiar 
to  Continental  scholars.  More  especial  mention  is  due  to 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  of  his  country,  Sir  Richard 
Claverhouse  Jebb  (1841-1905),  who  at  the  time  of  his 
death  was  professor  of  Greek  at  Cambridge.  He  was  a 
witty,  versatile  man  of  the  world,  "  a  humanist  in  the 
highest  sense  of  the  word  "  (Sandys),  who  had  no  equal 
in  his  mastery  of  both  classical  form  and  spirit.  Though 
not  a  stranger  to  drawing-rooms  and  polite  society,  he 
edited  Sophocles  (1883-1896)  and  Bacchylides  (1905), 
translated  Theophrastus,  published  an  introduction  to 
Homer,  a  life  of  Porson,  of  Erasmus,  and  one  of  Bentley, 
helped  found  the  British  School  at  Athens,  and  was  a  master 
of  English  prose  and  of  Greek  verse.  It  is  impossible  to 
overrate  his  combination  of  deep  learning,  so  easily  car- 
ried, with  the  easy  tone  of  an  accomplished  gentleman. 


448  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Further  mention  must  be  made  of  Benjamin  Jowett 
(1817-1893),  Master  of  Balliol,  who  admirably  translated 
into  English,  Plato  (187 1),  Thucydides  (1881),  and  the 
Politics  of  Aristotle  (1885),  both  of  the  latter  with  com- 
mentaries. But  perhaps  it  was  Jowett's  personality  that 
must  be  taken  into  account.  His  influence  over  awkward 
and  bashful  undergraduates  was  remarkable,  as  it  was 
with  those  of  his  own  age.  His  pungent,  witty,  unexpected 
sayings  will  be  remembered  and  quoted  as  long  as  his 
translations  are  read. 

Mention  has  been  made  elsewhere  of  many  noted 
British  scholars.  We  must  refer  again  to  H.  A.  J.  Munro 
(1819-1885)  to  note  his  splendid  work  both  as  an  editor 
and  translator  of  Lucretius,  and  because  he  gave  "  the  first 
impulse  to  a  reform  in  the  pronunciation  of  Latin."  ^  And 
one  must  also  mention  the  services  which  Great  Britain 
has  rendered  to  Classical  Archaeology  in  the  work  of  the 
British  Schools  at  Athens  (1883-)  and  at  Rome  (1901-) ; 
Banks,  Arden,  Harris,  carried  on  fruitful  explorations  at 
Herculaneum,  resulting  in  the  course  of  a  century,  in  the 
rescue  of  important  fragments  of  Epicurus,  Philodemus, 
a  part  of  the  Iliad,  speeches  of  Hyperides,  and  others 
already  mentioned  as  recovered.  And  perhaps  the  ex- 
treme of  minute  commentary  was  reached  by  Professor 
J.  E.  B.  Mayor  (1825-1911)  in  his  two  volumes  of  closely 
printed  notes  on  the  Satires  of  Juvenal  (last  ed.,  1886). 
'  See  Sandys,  op.  cit.,  iii.  p.  433. 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  449 

These  and  such  as  these  are  of  the  dlite  of  British  scholar- 
ship. Their  names  are  known  wherever  classical  learning 
exists.  One  is  reminded  of  the  story  of  how  Gaisford 
when  in  Germany  went  to  pay  a  call  on  Dindorf  at  Leipzig. 
The  door  was  opened  by  a  shabby  man  who  resembled  a 
servant;  but  when  Gaisford's  name  was  mentioned,  rushed 
into  his  arms  and  kissed  him.^ 

If  England  felt  only  in  the  person  of  her  most  learned 
men  the  influence  of  Germany,  the  United  States  of 
America  may  be  said  not  to  have  discovered  Germany  at 
all  until  within  the  memory  of  those  still  living.  Settled 
at  first  by  Englishmen,  such  rude  culture  as  it  had  for  more 
than  a  century  was  wholly  English.  The  first  institution 
of  higher  learning  was  Harvard  College,  now  Harvard 
University,  named  from  John  Harvard  of  Cambridge,  who 
gave  half  his  fortune  and  all  his  library  to  the  college  that 
was  to  bear  his  name  (1638).  In  age,  among  American 
homes  of  scholarship,  the  College  of  William  and  Mary, 
chartered  by  those  sovereigns  in  1693,  comes  next  to  Har- 
vard; ^  and  in  order,  during  the  colonial  period,  are  Yale 
(1701),  so  named  in  17 18  after  one  Elihu  Yale;   Princeton 

^  Tuckwell,  p.  131. 

2  Dr.  Sandys  {op.  cit.,  iii.  452)  oddly  omits  this  venerable  seat  of 
learning,  which  has  existed  down  to  the  present  time,  and  among 
whose  graduates  have  been  four  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
the  most  learned  of  our  Chief  Justices,  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
of  our  soldiers  (General  Winfield  Scott).  He  makes  Yale  to  have 
been  the  second  college  established  in  the  United  States. 

2G 


450  HISTORY   OF    CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

(1746);  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  Philadelphia, 
originally  an  academy,  assisted  by  Benjamin  Franklin 
(1751);  in  New  York  City,  King's  College,  chartered  by 
George  II  (1754),  but  renamed  Columbia  College  in  1787, 
and  Columbia  University  in  1890.  Brown  University 
was  established  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  in  1764. 
These  five  centres  of  the  higher  education  were  all  in 
existence  before  the  Revolution,  There  are  now  in  the 
United  States  more  than  four  hundred  institutions  that 
call  themselves  colleges  or  universities,  but  barely  a 
score  satisfy  the  definition.  In  general  it  may  be  said 
that  the  older  colleges  that  have  become  universities 
deserve  the  name,  and  are  splendidly  equipped  with  the 
most  modem  apparatus  for  research,  with  specialists 
trained  in  Germany  or  in  other  foreign  countries  to 
satisfy  the  most  exacting  seeker  after  knowledge;  while 
the  newly  founded  ones  are  still  to  prove  their  right  to 
scholarly  esteem. 

It  must  be  noted,  however,  that  this  statement  is  only 
general.  Some  of  the  youngest  universities,  like  Chicago, 
(1892),  Johns  Hopkins  (1876)  in  Baltimore,  Leland 
Stanford  at  Palo  Alto,  California  (1891),  Cornell  at  Ithaca  in 
New  York  (1865),  were  nobly  endowed  by  the  generosity  of 
some  very  wealthy  men.  The  Clark  University  in  Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts,  admits  no  undergraduates,  but  gives 
all  its  energy  to  intense  specialisation.  All  these  newer  uni- 
versities are  modelled  mainly  on  the  German,  while  the 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  45 1 

older  ones  still  retain  in  large  measure  the  traditions  of 
English  scholarship. 

There  was  scarcely  any  standard  but  the  English 
standard  known  prior  to  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the 
wide  separation  of  the  United  States  from  Europe  made  this 
natural  enough;  but  it  led  to  a  sort  of  intellectual  dry-rot. 
The  first  American  to  study  in  Germany  was  George 
Ticknor  (i 791-187 1),  afterwards  Professor  of  the  French 
and  Spanish  Languages  and  Literatures  at  Harvard.  He 
spent  four  years  divided  between  Gottingen,  Leipzig, 
Halle,  and  Paris,  visiting  also  Weimar,  Naples,  and  Rome, 
and  meeting  some  of  the  most  eminent  scholars  of  his 

time. 

In  like  manner,  Edward  Everett  (i 794-1865),  aftenvards 
President  of  Harvard,  and  Professor  of  Greek,  spent  four 
years  (1815-1819)  abroad.  On  returning,  he  said:  "In 
regard  to  university  methods,  America  has  nothing  to 
learn  from  England,  but  everything  to  learn  from  Germany." 
George  Bancroft  (1800-1891),  the  long-winded  historian 
of  his  own  country,  was  another  of  those  sporadic  pilgrims 
whose  isolated  enthusiasm  bore  no  fruit  because  the  Ameri- 
can people  were  not  ready  for  it.  Let  us  add  to  the  list 
C.C.  Eel  ton.  Professor  of  Greek  at  Harvard,  who  annotated 
Wolf's  text  of  the  Iliad,  and  wrote  a  singularly  naif  account 
of  his  travels  in  Europe.  T.  D.  Woolsey  of  Yale  was  a 
more  able  and  active  scholar,  and  more  deserving  of  regard. 
He  edited  a  number  of  Greek  texts  with  a  fair  comprehen- 


452  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

sion  of  their  meaning.^  Harvard  possessed  two  foreign- 
bom  professors  whose  influence  was  felt,  as  was  that  of 
the  poet  Longfellow  (1807-1882).  These  were  E.  A. 
Sophocles  (1807-1883),  who  wrote  a  Greek  grammar  of 
the  Roman  and  Byzantine  periods,  Carl  Beck  (1798- 
1866),  a  German  by  birth.  His  pupil,  G.  M.  Lane 
(1823-1897),  was  Professor  of  Latin  for  thirty-three  years. 
After  his  death,  a  Latin  grammar  upon  which  he  had 
long  laboured  was  finished  and  seen  through  the  press 
(1898)  by  his  former  pupil.  Professor  M.  H.  Morgan. 

Many  American  grammars  were  published  in  this  period, 
the  more  popular  being  those  of  Albert  Harkness,  Pro- 
fessor of  Latin  in  Brown,  often  revised ;  ^  Allen  and 
Greenough;  ^  Gildersleeve,"  Gildersleeve-Lodge,^  Hale  and 
Buck,®  Bennett  ^  and  especially  a  grammar  litde  known, 
but  made  on  a  theory  of  his  own,  by  Gustavus  Fischer, 
who  resigned  the  chair  of  Latin  at  Rutgers  College  in  order 
to  pursue  this  work.  By  an  unfortunate  fatality,  the 
whole  edition  of  this  learned  work  was,  with  its  plates,  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  so  that  a  copy  of  it  is  a  very  rare  possession. 

The  true  spread  of  the  influence  of  German  learning  in 
America  is  due  to  Charles  Anthon  (1797-1867)  of  Columbia 
College,  who  was  himself  of  German  descent.  He  produced 
a  large  number  of  annotated  editions  of  Greek  and  Latin 

1  For  a  criticism  of  American  colleges  at  this  time,  see  Bristed, 
Five  Years  in  an  English  University  (New  Yorii,  1855). 

2 1898.  2  1904.  *  1875.  ^  1905-  '  1903-  ^  1908. 


THE    GERMAN    INFLUENCE  453 

text-books,  in  whose  commentary  he  drew  freely  upon  the 
best  German  sources.  For  the  fulness  of  his  annotations 
he  was  severely  criticised,  but  the  extent  of  them  was  in 
reality  due  to  the  lack  of  knowledge  among  classical 
teachers  who  had  never  heard  of  Doring  or  Jahn,  or  even 
Bentley.  Anthon's  texts  were  very  widely  circulated,  as 
were  his  handbooks  on  geography,  mythology,  prosody, 
grammar,  besides  a  Latin  lexicon.  In  this  way,  the 
teachers  as  well  as  schoolboys  came  to  know  something 
that  was  more  accurate  and  broader  than  the  New  England 
horn-books  which  had  done  duty  for  too  long.  Anthon 
may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  the  first  American  to  bring 
the  German  influence  to  bear,'  and  he  could  do  it  the  better 
because  the  events  of  1848  in  Germany  had  driven  to  the 
United  States  thousands  of  involuntary  emigrants.  So, 
Columbia  University  has  the  honour  of  securing  the  services 
of  Franz  Lieber  as  an  expounder  of  international  law; 
and  of  initiating  the  study  of  archaeology  by  the  labours 
of  Augustus  C.  Merriam  (1843-1895),  who  worked  hard 
for  insufficient  recognition,  and  who  died  at  Athens,  where 
he  is  now  buried.  Finally,  it  is  an  interesting  fact  that 
each  of  the  two  lexicons  officially  adopted  at  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  should    be  wholly   or   in    part   the  work   of 

^  Englishmen  who  sneer  at  him  should  remember  that  his  books 
were  pirated  multitudinously  by  English  publishers,  and  that  his 
Horace,  in  particular,  was  used  in  all  the  English  public  schools,  where 
they  were  wholly  ignorant  of  German. 


454  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

Columbia  professors.  The  Latin  lexicon  by  Lewis  and 
Short  tells  that  Charles  Lancaster  Short  (1821-1886) 
was  Professor  of  Latin  at  Columbia;  while  the  Greek 
lexicon  of  Liddell  and  Scott,  in  the  latest  edition,  ac- 
knowledges the  services  of  Dr.  Henry  Drisler  (1818- 
1897),  who  had  collaborated  with  the  English  editors, 
and  who  held  the  Greek  chair  in  Columbia. 

The  first  university  to  be  founded  after  German  ideals  was 
the  Johns  Hopkins,  endowed  by  a  gentleman  of  that  name, 
and  its  first  president,  Daniel  Coit  Gilman  (1831-1909), 
gave  full  swing  to  his  Germanising  tendency,  so  that  in  a 
few  years  he  had  gathered  around  him  a  group  of  scholars 
in  the  European  sense  and  compelled  the  older  universities 
to  reform  their  methods.  Johns  Hopkins  has  been  the 
alma  mater  of  many  able  men,  most  of  whom  still  live  to 
do  her  honor.  The  American  Journal  of  Philology,  edited 
by  Professor  Basil  L.  Gildersleeve,  is  published  there. 
Other  studies  and  classical  series  emanate  from  Chicago 
{Classical  Philology  and  the  Classical  Jour^ial),  as  do 
Harvard  Studies,  Cornell  Studies,  etc.,  from  other  uni- 
versities. 

Profound  scholarship  was  represented  by  William 
Dwight  Whitney  (1827-1894),  Professor  of  Comparative 
Philology  at  Yale,  who  was  a  Sanskritist  and  student  of 
language,  widely  known  in  Germany  and  wherever 
oriental  studies  are  pursued.  He  was  one  of  the  four  chief 
contributors  to  the  St.  Petersburg  dictionary  of  Sanskrit; 


THE    GERMAN   INFLUENCE  455 

his  own  Sanskrit  grammar  is  a  standard  work;  with  the 
first  volume  of  the  Atharva-V eda-Samhitd  (1855-1856), 
the  second  volume  being  completed  by  Whitney's  former 
pupil,  Professor  Lanman  of  Harvard.  Other  professors 
of  distinction  at  Yale  were  James  Hadley  (1821-1872), 
who  is  known  by  his  Greek  grammar;  ^  L.  R.  Packard 
(1836-1884),  and  Thomas  Day  Seymour  (1848-1907), 
whose  studies  were  largely  upon  Homer,  though  he  pro- 
duced one  edition  of  selected  odes  from  Pindar  (1882). 
His  last  work  was  Life  in  the  Homeric  Age,  his  swan-song, 
the  results  of  long  years  of  patient  study. 

Of  American  scholarship  it  is  difficult  to  write,  for  the 
fine  flavour  of  it  and  its  opportunities  are  all  new,  and  its 
ablest  representatives  are  still  living  men.  Let  it  be  long 
before  it  becomes  possible  to  mention  them  in  a  volume 
that  has  to  do  so  fully  and  almost  wholly  with  those  who 
have  laid  aside  their  pleasant  labours. 

1  i860;   last  ed.  rev.  by  F.  D.  Allen  (1884). 


XI 

THE   COSMOPOLITAN   PERIOD 

With  the  death  of  Theodor  Mommsen,  the  twentieth 
century  appears  to  have  entered  upon  a  new  and 
remarkable  period  of  scholarship.  It  has  passed  through 
the  rough  and  rugged  paths  by  which  all  learning  is 
attained,  the  value  of  classical  training  is  now  recognised 
on  every  side,  and  all  possible  means  are  provided  for 
its  efficient  and  illuminating  study.  Immense  sums  are 
given  for  its  betterment,  and  many  countries  maintain 
special  schools  for  classical  study  in  Rome  and  Athens. 

Furthermore,  the  scholars  of  to-day  are  divided  into 
groups  according  to  their  own  inclination  and  their  especial 
ability.  A  still  more  marked  distinction  from  the  past  is 
that  universities  are  not  now  separated  and  isolated  as 
they  were  even  in  the  period  of  Nationalism.  The  students 
and  professors  of  one  country  pass  to  the  fellowship  of  the 
professors  and  students  of  another  country,  very  much  as 
they  did  in  the  time  of  the  Renaissance,  but  with  much 
more  facility  and  a  still  greater  assurance  of  welcome. 
This  is  noticeable  in  the  United  States,  where  chairs  are 
established  for  the  interchange  of  American   Professors 

4S6 


THE   COSMOPOLITAN   PERIOD  457 

with  those  of  foreign  lands,  which  lecturers  are  welcomed 
every  year  from  Germany,  France,  England,  Italy,  and 
the  Scandinavian  countries.  The  whole  world  of  leamins: 
has  become  a  single  world  without  becoming  a  narrow 
world. 

Every  division  of  Classical  Philology  is  now  regarded  as 
intimately  united  with  all  the  rest.  Archaeology  throws 
light  on  usage  and  on  custom,  Art  refines  and  gives  beauty 
to  Numismatics,  and  makes  the  readings  of  the  Classics  an 
aesthetic  pleasure.  Language  study  is  no  longer  crude  nor 
a  matter  of  mere  guesswork;  but  since  the  remarkable 
discovery  of  Verner  and  the  splendid  expository  work  of 
Brugmann,  it  is  a  science  of  the  highest  order.  Moreover, 
the  love  of  the  Classics  for  themselves  has  grown  and 
flourished. 

But  perhaps  the  greatest  gift  which  has  come  to  us  in 
modern  times,  from  the  teaching  of  Scientific  Philology, 
is  the  recognition  of  the  value  of  scientific  truth.  When 
we  look  back  upon  the  controversies  and  foul  wrangling  of 
men  of  genius  like  Scioppius  and  Scaliger  and  Milton,  we  see 
that  they  in  reality  were  fighting  first  for  victory  and  only 
partially  for  truth.  To-day,  one  hopes  that  in  whatever 
form  the  higher  study  may  reveal  itself,  it  will  reveal  itself 
as  a  longing  for  idealised  worship  of  reality  and  verity  in 
all  things. 

So  long  ago  as  1870,  the  great  Romance  scholar,  Gaston 
Paris,  uttered  in  a  lecture  this  splendid  credo:  — 


458  HISTORY   OF   CLASSICAL   PHILOLOGY 

"I  profess  absolutely  and  without  reserve  this  doctrine  that 
science  has  no  other  aim  than  truth,  and  truth  for  its  own  sake, 
without  care  for  the  consequences,  good  or  ill,  regrettable  or  happy, 
which  that  truth  might  have  in  practice.  He  who  from  a  patriotic, 
religious,  or  even  from  a  moral  motive,  allows  himself  in  the  facts 
that  he  is  studying,  in  the  conclusions  that  he  draws,  the  smallest 
dissimulation,  the  slightest  alteration,  is  not  worthy  of  a  place  in 
the  great  laboratory  to  which  truthfulness  is  a  more  indispensable 
claim  to  admission  than  skill.  Thus  understood,  studies  in  common 
carried  on  in  the  same  spirit  in  all  civilised  countries,  form,  above 
restricted,  diverse,  and  often  hostile  nationalities,  a  great  father- 
land which  no  war  soils,  which  no  conqueror  threatens,  but  wherein 
souls  find  the  refuge  and  the  unity  which  was  given  them  of  old 
by  the  citadel  of  God." 


INDICES 

I.  SELECTED   BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX 

II.  GENERAL   INDEX 


SELECTED   BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX 

Abbott,  E.    Pericles  (London,  i8gi). 

Abbott,  F.  F.     The  Use  of  Repetition  in  Latin  (Chicago,  1902). 
Adam,  James.     The  Religious  Teachers  of  Greece  (Edinburgh,  1908). 
Allbut,  Thomas  C.    Science  and  Mediaeval  Thought  (London,  1901). 
Allman,  G.  J.     Greek  Geometry  from  Thalcs  to  Euclid  (Dublin,  1889). 
Antichan,  P.  H.     Les  Grands  Voyages  de  Decouvertes  des  Anciens  (Paris, 

1891). 
Arbenz,  Emil.    Die  Schriftstellerei  in  Rom  ziir  Zeit  der  Kaiser  (Basle,  1877). 
Archer,  T.  A.,  and  Kingsford,  C.  L.     The  Crusades  (New  York,  1898). 
Assailly,  Octave  d'.     Albert  le  Grand  (Paris,  1870). 

B 

Ball,  R.  S.     Great  Astronomers  (New  York,  1899). 

Ball,  W.  W.  R.     A  Short  Account  of  the  History  of  Mathematics  (Lon- 
don, 1901). 

Bascom,  John.     The  Philosophy  of  Rhetoric  (New  York,  1888). 

Bayet,  Charles.     L'Art  Byzantin  (Paris,  1892). 

Bemont,  Charles,  and  Monod,  G.     Mediaval  Europe,  English  translation 
(New  York,  1906). 

Benn,  Alfred  W.     Early  Greek  Philosophy  (London,  1908). 
Greek  Philosophers   (London,   1883). 

Bentley,  Richard.     Critica  Sacra,  new  ed.  by  A.  A.  Ellis  (Cambridge, 
1862). 
Dissertation  on  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris,  last  ed.  by  W.  Wagner  (Berlin, 

1874). 
Bernays,  Jakob.     Life  of  Joseph  Scaliger  (Berlin,  1855). 
Bernhardy,  Gottfried,  Eratosthenica  (Berlin,  1822). 

Geschichte  der  Gricchischen  Litteratur,  sth  ed.  (Halle,  1877-1892). 

Grundriss  der  Romischen  Litteratur.     2  vols.,  sth  ed.  (Brunswick,  1865). 
Bernstein,  G.  H.     Versus  Ludicri  in  Cczsares  Priores  (Halle,  1810). 
Berry,  Arthur.     A  Short  History  of  Astronomy  (New  York,  1899). 

461 


462  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX 

Besant,  Walter.    Edward  Henry  Palmer  (London,  1883). 

Binde,  Robert.    Seneca  (Glogau,  1883). 

Birt,  Theodor.     Das  Antike  Buchwesen  (Berlin,  1882). 

Historla  Hexametri  Latini  (Bonn,  1876). 
Blass,  F.  W.     Die  Attische  Beredsamkeity  2d  ed.,  3  vols.  (Leipzig,  1898). 

The  Pronunciation  of  Ancient  Greek,  Eng.  trans.  (Cambridge  1S90). 

Die  Interpolationen  in  der  Odyssee  (Halle,  1904). 
Blau,  August.     De  Aristarchi  Discipulis  (Jena,  1883). 
Boeckler,  Doctor.    Die  Polychromie  in  der  Antiken  Sculptur  (Aschers- 

leben,  1882). 
Boissier,  Gaston.     Etudes  sur  la  Vie  et  les  CEuvres  de  M.  T.  Varron  (Paris, 
1861). 

La  Fin  du  Paganisme  (Paris,  1891). 

La  Religion  Romaine  d'Auguste  aux  Antonins  (Paris,  1906). 

Le  Poete  Attius  (Paris,  1857). 

Roman  Africa,  Eng.  trans.  (New  York,  1899). 
Bonnet,  A.  M.     Le  Latin  de  Gregoire  de  Tours  (Paris,  1890). 
Booth,  John.     Epigrams  Ancient  and  Modern,  3d  ed.  (London,  1874). 
Botsford,  G.  W.     A  History  of  the  Orient  and  Greece  (London  and  New 

York,  1904). 
Botticher,  K.  E.  F.     De  Alliteratio7iis  apud  Romanos  Vi  et  Usu  (Berlin, 

1884). 
Breal,  M.  J.  A.     Pour  Mieux  Connaitre  Homere  (Paris,  1906). 
Broglie,  Emmanuel  de.     La  Societe  de   VAhhaye  de  Saint-Germain  des 

PrSs,  2  vols.     (Paris,  1891). 
Browne,  Henry.     Handbook  of  Homeric  Study  (London  and  New  York, 

1905)- 
Brugmann,  Karl.     Zum  heutigen  Stand  der  Sprachwissenschaft  (Leipzig, 

188s). 
Brunei,  Gustave.    Manuel  du  Lihraire,  etc.,  8  vols.  (Paris,  1880). 
Bude,  E.  de.     Vie  de  Bude  (Paris,  1884). 
Biihler,  J.  G.,  and  Kielhom.     Grundriss  der   Indo-arischen  Philologie 

(Strassburg,  1896  fol.). 
Bunbury,  E.  H.    A  History  of  Ancient  Geography,  2d  ed.  (London,  1883). 
Burckhardt,  Jakob.     Geschichte  der  Retuiissance  in  Italien   (Stuttgart, 

1890-1891). 
Kultur  der  Renaissance  in  Italien,  8th  ed.  (Leipzig,  1904). 
The  Civilization  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  Eng.  trans.  (London,  1898). 
Bursian,  Konrad.     Geschichte  der  Klassischen  Philologie  in  Deutsckland, 

etc.  (Munich,  1883). 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX  463 

Bury,  J.  B.     A  History  of  the  Later  Roman  Empire  (London,  1887). 

Ed.  Gibbon's  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire 
(London,  1896). 

Life  of  St.  Patrick  (Cambridge,  1905). 
Butcher,  S.  H.     Aristotle's  Theory  of  Poetry  and  Fine  Art  (London,  1902). 

Demosthenes,  last  ed.  (London,  1903). 


Cajori,  Florian.     A  History  of  Elementary  Mathematics  (London  and  New 
York,  1907). 
A  History  of  Mathematics  (New  York,  1906). 
Capes,  W.  W.     University  Life  in  Ancient  Athens  (London,  1877). 
Cara,  P.  C.  A.     Gli  Hethei  Pelasgi  (Rome,  1894-1902). 
Carroll,  Mitchell.     Aristotle's  Poetics  (Baltimore,  1895). 
Castellani,  Carlo.     Delle  Biblioteche  neW  Antichitd  (Bologna,  1884). 
Cave,  William.     Primitive  Christianity  (London,  1834). 
Chaignet,    A.    E.     Pythagore   et   la   Philosophie    Pythagorienne    (Paris, 

1873)- 

Chalandon,  Georges.     Essai  sur  Ronsard  (Paris,  1875). 

Charles,  Emile.     Roger  Bacon;  sa  Vie,  ses  Ouwages,  ses  Doctrines  d'aprds 
des  Textes  Lnedits   (Paris,   1861). 

Chassang,  Alexis.  Histoire  du  Roman,  &c.  (Paris,  1862). 

Church,  R.  W.     Miscellaneous  Essays  (London,  1888). 
The  Beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages  (London,  1895). 

Cirbied,  J.  C.  de.     Memoires  et  Dissertations  (Paris,  1824). 

Clark,  J.  W.     Libraries  in  the  Mediceval  and  Renaissance  Period  (Cam- 
bridge, 1894). 

Clark,  Victor  S.    Studies  in  the  Latin  of  the  Middle  Ages  (Lancaster, 
Penn.,  1900). 

Clarke,  George.     The  Education  of  Children  at  Rome  (New  York,  1896). 

Classen,  Johannes.    Introduction  to  the  edition  of  Thucydides  (Berlin, 
1897). 

Clement,   Louis.     De  Hadriani    Turnebi  .  .  .    Praefationibus  et    Poe- 
matis  (Paris,  1899). 

Clinton,  H.  F.     Fasti  Hellenici,  3  vols.  (Oxford,  1824-1834). 

Clodd,  Edward.     The  Story  of  the  Alphabet  (New  York,  1903). 

Cochin,  Henri.     Boccace,  Etudes  Italiennes  (Paris,  1890). 

CoUignon,  Albert.     Etude  sur  Petrone  (Paris,  1892). 

Comparetti,  Domenico.     Vergil  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Eng.  trans,  (Lon- 
don and  New  York,  1895). 


464  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    INDEX 

Compayre,  Gabriel.     Ahelard  and  the  Origin  and  Early  History  of  Univer- 
sities (New  York,  1893). 
History  of  Paedagogy,  Eng.  trans.  (Boston,  1886). 

Condamin,  J.    P.     Dc  Tertulliano    Christiana   Lingua  Artifice  (Lyons, 
1877). 

Conway,  R.  S.     Vertier^s  Law  in  Italy  (London,  1893). 

Cook,  Albert  S.     The  Age  of  Poetry  (Boston,  1892). 

Cooper,  F.  T.     Word  Formation  in  the  Roman  Sermo  Plebeius  (New  York, 
1895)- 

Cotton,  Henry.     Typographical  Gazeteer,  3d  ed.  (Oxford,  185  2-1 866). 

Couat,  Auguste.     La  Poesie  Alexandrine  (Paris,  1882). 

Courthope,  W.  J.     Life  in  Poetry:  Law  in  Taste  (London,  1901). 

Cox,  G.  W.     The  Greeks  and  the  Persians  (New  York,  1897). 

Cramer,  Friedrich.     De  GrcBcis  Medii  Aevi  Studiis  (Lund,  1849-1853). 

Creuzer,  Georg  F.     Opusciila  (Leipzig,  1817). 

Croiset,  Alfred.     Xenophon,  son  Caractere  el  son  Talent  (Paris,  1873). 

Croiset,  A.  and  M.     An  Abridged  History  of  Greek  Literature,  Eng.  trans. 
(New  York,  1904). 

Cros,  C.  I.  H.,  and  Henri,  Charles.     UEncaustique  (Paris,  1884). 

Curteis,  A.  M.     A  History  of  the  Roman  Empire  from  375  to  800  A.D. 
(London,  1875). 

Curtius,  Ernst.     History  of  Greece,  Eng.  trans.,  5  vols.  (New  York,  1868- 
1872). 

D 

Decharme,  Paul.     Euripides  and  the  Spirit  of  His  Dramas,  Eng.  trans. 

(New  York,  1906). 
Dedouvres,  E.     Les  Latins  (Paris,  1903). 
Dejob,  Charles.     Marc  Antoine  Muret  (Paris,  1881). 
Delbriick,   Berthold.      Einleitung  in  das  Sprachstudium,  3d  ed.  (Leip- 
zig, 1893)  ;   Eng.  trans.  (London,  1882). 
Delepierre,  J.  O.     La  Parodie  chez  les  Grccs,  etc.  (London,  1870). 
Denis,  Jacques.     La  Comedie  Grecque,  2  vols.  (Paris,  1886). 
Deschamps,  Pierre.     Dictionnaire  de  Geographic  a  V  Usage  dii  Lihraire 

(Paris,  1870). 
De  Vinne,  T.  L.     The  Invention  of  Printing  (New  York,  1878). 

Notable  Printers  of  Italy  during  the  Fifteenth  Century  (New  York,  1910). 
De  Vit,  Vincenzo.     Preface  to  the  Lexicon  of  Forcellini  (Prato,  1879). 
Didot,  A.  F.     Aide  Manuce  et  VHelUnism^  d  Venise  (Paris,  1875). 

Bibliotheca  (Paris,  1872). 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX  4^5 

Draper,  J.  W.    History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe  (New 

York,  1899). 
Dressel,  Heinrich,  De  Isidori  Originum  Fontibus  (Turin,  1874). 
Drisler,  Henry.     Classical  Studies  in  Honour  of  (New  York,  1894). 
DuBois,  E.  H.     Stress  Accent  in  Latin  Poetry  (New  York,  1906). 
Du  Cange  [Charles  du  Fresne],  Glossarium  ad  Scriptores  Media  et  InfimcB 

Latinitatis,  ed.  by  Favre  (Niort,  1884-1887). 
Du£F,  J.  W.     A  Literary  History  of  Rome  (London  and  Leipzig,  1909). 
Dufi&eld,  S.  A.  W.     Latin  Hymn-Writers  and  their  Hymns  (New  York, 

1889). 
Dugdale,   William.     Monasticum  Anglicanum,  8  vols.  (London,  181 7- 

1830).  ^ 
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E 
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F 

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2H 


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G 

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H 

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474  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    INDEX 

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Scott,  Leader.     The  Renaissance  of  Art  in  Italy  (London,  1888). 

Sears,  Lorenzo.     History  of  Oratory  (Chicago,  1903). 

Sellar,  W.  Y.     The  Roman  Poets  of  the  Augustan  Age  (Oxford,  1892). 

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX  475 

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U 

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W 

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476  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   INDEX 

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GENERAL   INDEX 


Abelard,  230. 

Academic  School  of  Philosophy,  122. 

yElius  Herodianus,  114,  186. 

/Elius  Praeconinus  Stilo,  L.,  the  first 
Roman  philologist,  159,  160;  his 
grammatical  and  critical  work,  160. 

i^neas  Silvius,  387. 

/Eschylus,  72,  78,  94,  109. 

Esthetics,  71. 

/Esthetic  Criticism,  in  Plato,  72,  73  ; 
in  Aristotle's  Poetics,   73,   75. 

African  Period  of  Latin,  1S6. 

Agricola,  Rudolphus,  390  a. 

Albertus  Magnus,  388. 

Alcaeus,  S3,  lOQ.  HQ- 

Alciphron,  155. 

Alcuin,  his  influence  on  Mediaeval 
study,  220-224,  238,  239,  385. 

Alexander  ^Etolus,  98,  106. 

Alexandria,  founding  of,  88;  descrip- 
tion of,  8S-90 ;  the  Library  and  Mu- 
seum at,  92-97. 

Alexandrian  Canon,  99,  100;  its  in- 
fluence  on    Greek    Literature,   100, 

lOI. 

Alexandrian  Influence,  96,  97,  102  ;  at 
Rome,  152. 

Alexandrian  Library,  92-94,  98,  102 ; 
foreign  books  collected  in,  93,  94; 
in  Roman  times,  93 ;  its  chief  libra- 
rians, 98,  109;  gradual  destruction 
of,  n6,  117. 

Alexandrian  Literature,  96-98,  loi,  102, 
106. 

Alexandrian  Philosophy,  Jewish  in- 
fluence in,  102,  103. 

Alexandrian  Poetry,  96,  loi,  102. 

Alexandrian  Schools,  95,  96 ;  late  repre- 
sentatives of,  116. 


Alexandrian  Science,  103,  104. 
Alexandrian  use  of  terms  (ptXdXoyos, 

(piXoXoyia,  2. 
Algebra,  104;    invented  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, 105. 
Alphabet,   taught    by  ypa/j./xaTia-T'/i^, 
18;      Plato's    classification    of    the 
letters,  65  ;   teaching  of  the  alphabet 
in  schools,  69,  70 ;   Roman  alphabet, 
132. 
Altgrammatiker,  422,  423. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  quoted,  211, 
212. 

Anacreon,  34. 

Analogy  and  Anomaly,  119,  120. 

Anaximander,  21,  25,  26. 

Anaximenes  of  Lampsacus,  21;  his 
Homeric  criticism,  44;  his  practical 
treatment  of  rhetoric,  45  ;  his  three 
rhetorical  categories,  45. 

Anaximenes  of  Miletus,  21. 

Anglo-Dutch  Period,  355. 

Annalistic  Method  in  Classical  Philol- 
ogy, 3- 

Anomaly,  see  Analogy. 

Anthology,  history  of  the  Planudean 
Anthology,  256;  of  the  Palatine 
Anthology,   256,   257;  344.  349- 

Anthon,  Charles,  452,  453. 

Antiphon,  first  publishes  speeches  as 
models,  43. 

Antiphrasis,  as  a  principle  in  language, 
68,  69. 

Apelles  of  Ephesus,  83. 

Aphorisms,  Roman  fondness  for,  149, 
15s.  156;   Varro's  collection  of,  162. 

ApoUonius  Dyscolus  of  Alexandria, 
founded  scientific  syntax,  185. 

ApoUonius  of  Perga,  103. 

ApoUonius  Rhodius,  loi. 

Apuleius,  as  a  word-maker,   148. 


477 


478 


INDEX 


Aquinas,  Thomas,  388. 

Arabic,  knowledge  of,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  240. 

Aratus,  96,  102. 

Arcesilaus,   118. 

Archeology  and  Antiquities,  250-254, 
268,  269,  287,  288,  313,  31s;  in 
Russia  and  the  Crimea,  401  n. 

Archimedes,  103. 

Aristarchus,  104;  his  critical  methods, 
109-116;  his  grammatical  terminol- 
ogy, log;  his  five  critical  processes, 
no;  his  Homeric  criticism,  109-1 II ; 
his  five  notcB,  113;  his  successors, 
114. 

Aristobulus,  102. 

Aristophanes,  72;  his  criticism  of  Eu- 
ripides, 76. 

Aristophanes  of  Byzantium,  invents 
accents,  punctuation,  and  critical 
signs,  98,  107,  108  ;  his  hypotheses  to 
the  dramatists,  98 ;  helps  establish 
the  Canons,  99 ;  his  ten  prosodim, 
107  ;  his  criticism  of  texts,  107,  108  ; 
as  the  first  scientific  lexicographer, 
108. 

Aristotle,  meaning  of  (fiCkoKoyla  in, 
2 ;  his  analytical  treatise  on  rhet- 
oric, 45-47 ;  his  conception  of  rhet- 
oric, 47,  48;  his  metaphysical  dis- 
tinctions, 48;  his  Organon,  48;  his 
ten  categories,  48;  the  importance 
of  his  categories  in  the  development 
of  formal  grammar,  48  ;  his  Poetics, 
73-76;  his  dramatic  criticism,  74, 
75 ;  his  criticism  of  Homer,  78 ;  his 
"casket  edition"  of  Homer,  78. 

Aristoxenus,  80. 

Arithmetic  in  the  Graeco-Roman 
Period,   172,   173. 

Ars  Poetica,  181,  182. 

Art,  distinction  between  fine  art  and 
useful  art,  73 ;  aesthetic  study  of 
art,  127-129;  mediaeval  art,  243; 
Byzantine  art,  250,  251. 

Arundel  Marbles,  the,  360  n. 

Asconius,  Pedianus,  168. 

Asiatic  Style,  42. 

Ast,  G.  A.  F.,  412. 

Astronomy,  22,  103. 


Athens,  contrasted  with  Sparta,  28; 
as  the  champion  of  Hellas,  29,  30; 
as  a  centre  of  learning,  32,  35,  42; 
as  a  university  town,  1 21-124. 

Attic  Style,  42. 

Attius,  his  tragedies,  149;  his  Didas- 
colica,  157  n. ;  his  reforms  in  Roman 
orthography,  157  n. 

Aurispa,  Giovanni,  his  enormous  col- 
lection of  Mss.,  279,  280. 

Auspicius,  216. 

Austria,  classical  studies  in,  386-388. 


B 


Bacchylides,  34,  234. 

Bacon,  Francis,  357-359- 

Bacon,  Roger,  239-242 ;  character  of 
his  writings,  239;  his  criticism  of 
the  Scholastics,  239 ;  his  suggestions 
as  to  Scriptural  text-criticism,  240, 
241 ;  his  Greek  lexicon,  241 ;  his 
glossaries  and  modern  methods,  242. 

Bancroft,  George,  451. 

Baronius,  Cardinal  Caesar,  309  n. 

Beadus,  Renanus,  396. 

Beck,  Carl,  452. 

Bekker,  August  Immanuel,  405,  410  n. 

Benfey,  Theodor,  419. 

Benedictus  (St.  Benedict),  197  ;  founds 
the  order  of  the  Benedictines,  200, 
202,  203. 

Bentley,  Richard,  assists  Kiister,  351 ; 
his  relations  with  Hemsterhuys,  352 
n.,  353;  included  in  the  "Pleiad," 
360;  as  a  scholar,  361-365;  his 
Phalaris,  365 ;  his  critical  power, 
366-370;    bibhography  to,  371  n. 

Bergk,  Theodor,  409. 

Bernhardy,  Gottfried,  413,  414. 

Bernard  de  Chartres,  his  method  of 
teaching,  230,  231. 

Bernays,  J.,  quoted,  74. 

Bessarion,  his  founding  of  the  Library 
of  St.  Mark  (Venice),  273. 

Biographical  Method  in  Classical 
Philology,  3. 

Biography,  120,  153,  154. 

Blagoviestschenski,  N.  M.,  401  n. 

Boccaccio,  Giovanni,  267,  268. 


INDEX 


479 


Boeckh,  August,  410  n. 

Boethius,  Anicius  Manlius,  206;  his 
De  Consolatione  Philosophiae,  206, 
207 ;  first  writer  to  use  Arabic 
(Hindu)  numerals,  207 ;  translated 
by  King  Alfred,  Chaucer,  and  Queen 
Elizabeth,  207. 

Boissier,  Gaston,  427. 

Bopp,  Franz,  first  scientific  student  of 
Comparative  Philology,  418,  419. 

Borghesi,  Bartoloraeo,  the  first  scien- 
tific epigraphist,  443. 

Bos,  Lambert,  351. 

Botsford,  G.  W.,  quoted,  7,  8. 

Bouhier,  Jean,  314. 

Brant,  Sebastian,  391  n. 

British  Museum,  381  n. 

Brown  University,  450. 

Brugmanu,  Karl  F.,  422,  423. 

Bruni,  Leonardo,  268. 

Bucheler,  Franz,  417. 

Buda,  University  at,  399. 

Budaeus,  304. 

Bugge,  Sophus  424.  433,  434- 

Burgess,  Prof.  J.  W.,  quoted,  244. 

Burlesque,  of  the  Sophists,  65,  66,  76 ; 
of  the  tragic  writers,  76;  of  Homer 
and  the  CycUc  writers,  77.  See 
Parody. 

Burmann,  Peter  (the  Elder),  his  Latin 
editions,  350,  351. 

Burney,  Charles,  his  "Pleiad,"  359, 
360. 

Burton,  Robert,  358  n. 

Butcher,  S.,  quoted,  73,  74. 

Buttmann,  P.  K.,  410  n. 

Byzantine  Empire  (New  Rome),  charac- 
teristics of  its  history,  210,  247-250; 
its  art,  250,  251;  its  literature,  251, 
254,  256,  257;  its  jurisprudence, 
252,  253;  its  scholarship,  253-255; 
its  pillage  by  the  Turks,  272;  its 
earUer  relations  with  Italy,  269. 


Cajori,  Florian,  quoted,  22. 

Calepinus,  Ambrosius,  his  lexicon, 
415  n;  alterations  herein,  see  Lexi- 
cography. 


Callimachus,  93  n,  96 ;  his  bibliograph- 
ical work,  98,  106 ;  his  lyric  poetry, 
loi ;   his  epigrams,  loi. 

Camerarius,  396. 

Canon  of  Ten  Sculptors,  129. 

Canter,  William,  his  use  of  Arabic 
numerals  in  verse,  343. 

Carneades,  150. 

Carnegie  Institution,  92. 

Carolingian  Period  of  Middle  Ages, 
214-218,  225,  226. 

Casaubon,  Isaac,  306,  308-312. 

Cassiodorus,  Magnus  AureUus,  203, 
204. 

Castelvetro,  F.,  75. 

Categories,  of  Anaximenes,  45;  of 
Aristotle,  46,  47. 

Catholicon,  247. 

Cato,  M.  Porcius,  his  Origincs,  153; 
as  the  originator  of  Roman  prose, 

153- 

Catullus,  Quintus  Valerius,  152. 

Caylus,  le  Comte  de,  315,  316. 

Celtes,  Conrad,  391  n. 

Cephalas,  256,  344. 

Charlemagne,  his  court  school,  220. 

Charles  the  Bald,  385. 

Christomathies,  see  Lexicography. 

Chrysoloras,  Manuel,  269,  280. 

Cicero,  M.  T.,  as  a  word-maker,  148; 
as  a  philosopher,  150 ;  as  a  historian, 
153;   as  an  orator,  153. 

Ciceronianism  at  the  time  of  the  Re- 
naissance, 281,  282,  302,  303  ;  culti- 
vated by  Ernesti,  400. 

Ciriaco  de'  Pizzicolli  (di  Ancona),  ar- 
cha;ologist,  268. 

City  editions  of  Homer,  16,  17,  in, 
112. 

Clark,  Victor  S.,  quoted,  219. 

Classical  Archaeology,  studied  in  Great 
Britain,  380,  381  ;  in  France  and 
Germany,  426—429. 

Classical  Philology,  1-4  ;  definition  of, 
1-3;  methods  of  treating,  3-4;  his- 
tory of,   1—2. 

Cobet,  Caryl  Gabriel,  424,  425. 

Codex,  meaning  of,  280  n. 
Colet,  John,  295. 
College  de  France,  305. 


48o 


INDEX 


Columbia  University  (King's  Col- 
lege), 450. 

Comedy  in  Athens,  72,  76. 

Commodianus,  193. 

Comparative  Philology,  3  n. ;  first  at- 
tempt at,  398 ;  first  scientific  study 
of  418,  419. 

Conington,  John,  447. 

Constantinople,  see  Byzantine  Em- 
pire. 

Cooper,  F.  T.,  quoted,  187. 

Corax  of  Syracuse,  writes  the  first 
manual  of  rhetoric,  41 ;  his  rules,  41, 
44. 

Corpus  Inscriptionum  AUicarum,  441. 

Corpus  Inscriptionum  Greecarum  441. 

Corpus  Inscriptionum  Lalinarum,  443. 

Corpus  luris  Civilis,  253. 

Corssen,  \V.,  434—437. 

Corvinus,  Matthias,  399. 

Cosmopolitanism  at  Rome,  186. 

Crates  of  Mallos,  119,  120;  his  view  of 
Homer,  120;  the  "Bentley  of  An- 
tiquity," 120;  his  conception  of 
text-criticism,  119,  120;  his  works, 
120;  his  embassy  to  Rome,  1 20 ;  157. 

Cralylus,  synopsis  of  the  dialogue,  61- 

67. 

Critical  Signs,  98,  107,  108,  113,  114, 
160,    166,    167,    186. 

Criticism,  of  the  Homeric  Poems,  in 
Early  Greece,  13,  20,  25,  27 ;  its 
varieties,  39,  40,  see  Text  Criticism  ; 
aesthetic,  73-75 ;  of  the  drama  in 
Greece,  74-77 ;  subjective,  107,  368, 
369  ;  verbal,  305,  306  ;  diplomatic, 
336-340.     See  Text  Criticism. 

Cruques,  Jacques  de  (Cruquius),  his 
studies  of  Horace  in  Mss.  now  lost, 
342,  343 ;    Codex  Blandinianus,  342, 

343- 

Crusades,  their  influence  on  Europe, 
257,  258. 

Cujacius  (Jacques  de  Cujas),  his  rela- 
tions with  Scaliger,  326;  his  recon- 
struction of  Roman  law,  326. 

Curtius,  Ernst,  419. 

Curtius,  Georg,  the  head  of  a  school 
of  language  study,  419,  420. 

Cyclic  Poets,  12. 


Cylas,  174. 
Cynics,  51. 


Dalberg,  Johann  von,  391  n. 

Damm,  Tobias,  417. 

Dante,  261,  262. 

Dawes,  Richard,  371. 

Demetrius,  Magnus,  120. 

Demetrius  Phalerius,  88-91. 

Democritus  of  Abdera,  11 ;  his  theories 
of  language,  58 ;  his  treatise  on 
Glosses,  1 26  n. ;  his  work  on  painting, 
128. 

Demosthenes,  44. 

Descriptive  Geography,  see  Geog- 
raphy. 

Didascalica,  157  n. 

Didymus  Chalcenteros,  his  vast  pro- 
ductiveness, 114,  116. 

Dilettanti  Society,  380. 

Dindorf,  K.  W.,  407. 

Dindorf,  Ludwig,  407  n. ;  449. 

Dinocrates,  the  designer  of  Alexandria, 
89. 

Diogenes  Laertius,  60. 

Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  quoted,  40. 

Dionysius  Thrax,  the  first  teacher  of 
formal  grammar,  158—160. 

Dittenberger,  W.,  441. 

Dcederlein,  L.,  412. 

Donaldson,  J.  W.,  439. 

Donatus,  ^Elius,  184,  185 ;  abridg- 
ment of,  246. 

Doratus,  Auratus  (Jean  d'Aurat), 
teacher  of  Scaliger  and  Ronsard,  326. 

Downes,  Andrew,  357,  360. 

Drakenborch,  Arnold,  his  great  edition 
of  Livy,  351. 

Drama,  its  beginnings  in  Greece,  15; 
influence  in  Greece,  72,  75-77 ;  na- 
tive Roman  drama,  131. 

Dramatic  Criticism,  in  Aristotle,  74, 
75 ;  the  three  Dramatic  Unities, 
75  ;  in  Theophrastus  of  Ephesus,  76 ; 
in  Aristophanes,  76. 

Drisler,  Henry,  418  n,  454. 

Du  Cange,  Charles  du  Fresne,  his  glos- 
saries of  Low  Latin  and  Late  Greek, 
312. 


INDEX 


481 


Duff,  J.  W.,  quoted,  136. 
Duns  Scotus,  385,  388. 
DuFis  of  Samos,  128. 
Duruy,  J.  V.,  429. 


E 


Eckhel,  Joseph,  403. 

Eclectics,  51;    at  Alexandria,  97,  102. 

Editiones  Principes  of  the  Fifteenth 
Century,  299,  300. 

Education,  in  early  Greece,  17-19,  26, 
27 ;  in  the  Prae-Alexandrian  Period, 
49-51;  the  ancient  universities,  121- 
125;  in  early  Rome,  131;  the 
Graeco-Roman  education,  171-191; 
monastic  schools,  228-231. 

Egelsson,  Sveinbjoin,  "the  Icelandic 
Homer,  "  433. 

Egyptians,  their  influence  upon  early 
Greek  thought,  22;  their  scientific 
knowledge,  105  n. 

E£/c6s,  rhetorical  meaning  of,  41,  44. 

Eiodographic  Method  in  Classical 
Philology,  9. 

Eleatic  School,  24;  linguistic  theories 
of  the,  56-59. 

Elegiac  Poetry,  in  Greek  literature,  33  ; 
in  Latin  literature,  152. 

Eliot,  George,  quoted,  446. 

Encyclopaedists  in  Latin,  188-igo. 

English  universities,  scholarly  relations 
between  EngUsh  and  Dutch  Univer- 
sities, 359,  447 ;  the  Oxford  Press, 
359 ;  revival  of  Greek  at,  359 ;  Eng- 
lish scholars  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, 360-363  ;  the  Cambridge  Press, 
364;  deterioration  of  from  1750  until 
1820,  377,  378;  German  influence 
on,  446. 

Ennius,  Quintus,  138;  changes  made 
by  him  in  Latin  verse  structure, 
139-141 ;   hla  A  nnales,  139,  140. 

Epic  Poetry  among  the  Greeks,  9- 
12,  97;    among   the    Romans,    134, 

135 :  139,  151- 

Epicurus,  his  theory  of  the  ongin  of 
language,  60;  his  endowment  of  a 
school  at  Athens,  122. 


Epigrams,    of    Callimachus,    loi ;     of 

Martial,  155. 
Epigraphy,  origin  and  development  of, 

in  Antiquity,  167,  168;  Greek,  441 ; 

Roman,    of  late  development,  442, 

443- 
EpistulcB    Obscurorum  Virorum,  394, 

395- 

Epitome  of  the  Four  Treatises,  114,  115. 

Erasmus  Desiderius,  290;  account  of 
his  life,  291-294;  his  writings,  294- 
297 ;  his  character  and  influence, 
297-299. 

Eratosthenes  of  Alexandria,  styled 
01X6XO7OS,  2 ;  in  the  Alexandrian 
School,   98,    103,    106,    107. 

Ernesti,  Johann  August,  400,  401. 

Ethics,  in  Homer,  18,  19 ;  in  the  philos- 
ophy of  Pythagorus,  23 ;  of  Socrates, 

50,  51- 

Ethnographic  Method  in  Classical 
Philology,  4. 

Etruscology,  436,  437. 

Etymology,  52;  Plato's  discussion  in 
the  Cratylus,  61-67 ;  popular  ety- 
mologies, 66,  67  ;  principles  involved 
in  developing  words,  63,  64,  69; 
etymological  schools  among  the 
Romans,  157,  162-164. 

Euclid,  103. 

Eudemus,  his  history  of  geometry,  22. 

Eudoxus  of  Canidus,  174. 

Eumenes,  as  founder  of  the  Pergamene 
School,  118. 

Euphemism,  69. 

Euripides,  67,  72,  76,  78,  86. 

Eusebius,  his  Chronicle,  1 89 ;  restora- 
tion of,  by  J.  J.  Scaliger,  336-341. 

Everett,  Edward,  451. 

Exegesis,  72,  73. 


Faber,  Basilius,  397  n,,  399. 
Fabretti,  Raffaele,  442. 
Fabricius,  George,  397  n. 
Fabricius,  J.  A.,  440. 
Facciolati,  lacopo,  415-416. 
"FamiUes"  of  Manuscripts,  in. 
"Father  of  History,"  see  Herodotus. 


21 


482 


INDEX 


Felton,  C.  C,  451. 

Fenestella,  168. 

Ferrero,  G.,  429. 

Fiction,  see  Prose  fiction. 

Filelfo,  Francesco,  281. 

Fisher,  G.,  452. 

Folk  Literature  among  the  Romans, 
131,  156. 

Foreign  schools  at  Athens  and  Rome  : 
(i)  French  school  at  Athens,  427  ; 
(2)  German  school  at  Rome ;  (3) 
British  school  at  Athens,  447  ;  (4) 
British  school  at  Rome,  448;  (5) 
American  school  at  Athens ;  (6) 
American  school  at  Rome. 

Forgeries,  of  manuscripts,  284  n.,  285  ; 
of  inscriptions,  442. 

Frederick  of  Urbino,  his  remarkable 
library,  containing  a  list  of  Greek 
authors  now  lost,  273. 

French  School  of  Classical  Philology, 
304-320;    studies    in    music,    geog- 
raphy,   history,    and    gem-work    by 
French  scholars,  315,  316. 
Froben,  Johann,  294. 
Fronto,  Marcus  Cornelius,  186. 


Gaisford,  Thomas,  447,  449. 

Gaza,  Theodoras,  grammarian  and 
translator,  280,  281,  295,  391  n. 

Geldner,  K.  F.,  quoted,  30. 

Gellius,  A.,  186 ;  his  Nodes  Atticae,  188, 
189. 

Gem-cutting,  learned  from  the  Egyp- 
tians, 83,  84. 

Genealogy,  35. 

Geographic  Method  in  Classical  Philol- 
ogy, 4- 

Geography,  25  ;  first  scientific  treatise 
on,  25 ;  descriptive  geography,  25, 
35 ;  174,17s;  first  geographical  dic- 
tionary, 176;  in  the  French  Period, 
315  ;  road-maps,  392  n. 

Geometry,  22,  23  ;  developed  by  Euclid 
and  Archimedes,  103. 

Germany,  early  culture  in,  388  ;  schol- 
asticism in,  388  ;  humanism  in,  388- 
394.  396-398 ;  universities  in,  388- 


393  ;  intellectual  influence  of,  385- 
455 ;    periods    of    classical    scholar- 
ship in,  393 ;  study  of  Hebrew  in, 
394- 
Gesner,  Conrad,  398. 
Gesner,  J.  M.,  397  n. 
Gesta  Romanorum,   190,   224,   225. 
Gibbon,  Edward,  37,  378,  379. 
Gilman,  D.  C,  454. 
Glosses,  125-127;   various  meanings  of 
the   word,    126;    their   relations   to 
lexicography,  126;    Pamphilius,  194. 
Glossographers,  127,  194. 
Glossography,  126,  166,  167;  iee  Lexi- 
cography. 
Gnipho,  M.  Antonius,  166. 
Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  417. 
Gorgias  of   Leontini,   teaches  rhetoric 

in  Athens,  41-43. 
Grasco-Roman  Period,  130-190. 
Graevius  (Johann  Georg  Grave),  397  n. 
Grafenhan,  A.,  quoted,  26. 
Grammar,  its  early  relation  to  logic,  47 ; 
meaning    of     "grammaticus,"     70; 
gradual  development  of  grammatical 
terms  by  Protagoras,  70;   by  Prodi- 
cus,  49,  70;   by  Plato,  70;   by  .Aris- 
totle, 70,  71 ;  by  the  Stoics  and  Alex- 
andrians, 71,   109,   120;    by  Diony- 
sius   Thrax,    158;    first   treatise  on 
formal  grammar,  159;   L.  Stilo,  159, 
160;    M.  T.   Varro,    162;    the  first 
school   grammar,    183;    later   gram- 
matical writers  among  the  Romans, 
184-187;  study  of,  in  the  monastic 
schools,      229,     231;      grammatical 
theories  in   the  Middle  Ages,    236; 
modern    theories    of,    401    n.,  405, 
412-415. 
Tpdfi/j.aTa,  ypafifjiariffT-fis,  18,  69. 
Grammatici  Latini,  184-187. 
Grammaticus,   70;    172,   173. 
Gray,  Thomas,  371. 
Greek,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  235,  236; 
in  the  Renaissance  and   after,  269; 
taught  in  Italy  by  the  Byzantines, 
269 ;  restoration  of,  in  the  English 
universities,  359. 
Greek  culture,  antiquity  of,  5-9. 
Greek  genius,  character  of,  83-87. 


INDEX 


483 


Greek  Literature,  beginnings  of,  9-13; 
Homeric  writings,  13-15;  teaching 
of,  18-20;  early  criticism  of,  20; 
historiography,  26,  34-3O ;  at  Athens, 
28  £[. ;  varieties  of,  33-4S  ."  study  of, 
71;  criticism  of,  71;  73-75;  the 
drama,  72;  parody,  7 6-7 8;  genius 
of,  83-87;  in  Alexandria,  91-116; 
in  Pergamum,  118-120;  see  Renais- 
sance. 

Greek  studies  in  Ireland,  235  n. 

Gregorovius,  F., 

Gregory  Nazianzen,  quoted,  123,  124. 

Gregory  of  Tours,  216. 

Grimm's  Law,  420,  421. 

Grocyn,  William,  first  teacher  of  Greek 
at  Oxford,  293. 

Gronovii  (J.  F.  and  Jacob  Gronov), 
their  Thesaurus  of  Greek  antiquities, 

349- 
Grotius  Hugo  (Huig  van  Groot),  great 
classical  scholar  and  constructive 
jurist,  347  ;  his  edition  of  Martianus 
Capella  begun  at  the  age  of  twelve, 
347 ;  his  treatise  De  lure  Belli  ct 
Pads,  348 ;  his  translation  into  Latin 
verse  of  the  Planudean  Anthology, 

349-. 
Gruter,  Janus  (Jan  Gruytere),  his  col- 
lection of  Latin  inscriptions,  342. 

H 

Hadley,  James,  455. 

Haldeman,  S.,  435. 

Harpocration,  Valerius,  his  lexicon  to 
the  ten  orators,  194. 

Harvard,  John,  founder  of  Harvard 
College,  449. 

Havercamp,  Siegbert,  352. 

Haupt,  Moritz,  401  n.,  433  n. 

Hebrew,  study  of,  240,  394,  398. 

Hecataeus,  25,  26. 

Hegemon,  the  originator  of  true  par- 
ody, 77- 

Hegius,  Alexander,  391  n. 

Heinsius,   Daniel,   pupil    of    Scaliger, 

344- 
Heliodorus,  155. 
Hellanicus  of  Mitylene,  35. 


Hellenes,  origins  of  the,  5-8. 

Hellenic  Influence  in  Italy,  266—284. 

Hemsterhuys,  Tiberius,  his  acute  criti- 
cism, 352  ;  his  edition  of  Lucian,  353 ; 
appointed  professor  in  Leyden,  354; 
his  fame  in  other  countries,  354. 

Henri,  Victor,  427. 

Henzen,  Wilhelm,  443. 

HephEstion,  on  metres,   194. 

Heraclides  Ponticus,  his  treatise  on 
language,  76. 

Heraclitean  School,  linguistic  theories 

of,  56-59- 

Heraclitus,  21 ;  his  view  of  language, 
56-60. 

Herennius  Philon,  194. 

Hermeneutics,  73,  87. 

Hermann,  Gottfried,  401  n.,  405. 

Hero  of  Alexandria,  104,  105. 

Herodotus,  his  contributions  to  geo- 
graphical knowledge,  34,  35  ;  quoted, 
34,  35  ;  his  history,  34. 

Hesiod,  13. 

Hessus,  Helius  Eobanus,  396. 

Heyne,  Christian  Gottlob,  403. 

Hieronymus  (St.  Jerome),  148,  195. 

Hipparchus,  103. 

Hippias  of  Elis,  his  experiments  in 
literature,  50,  51. 

History,  26,  34;  in  Greek  literature, 
34-38;  among  foreigners,  54,  55; 
in  Latin  literature,  153,  154;  the 
Byzantine  historians,  254,  258  ;  later 
historians,  —  Gibbon,  378,  379, 
Niebuhr,  408-410,  Curtius,  Ernst, 
419,  Grote,  428,  Thirlwall,  428,  Du- 
ruy,  429,  Boissonade,  429,  Momm- 
sen,  443,  444,  Ferrero,  429. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  quoted,  182. 

Homeric  Epic,  character  of  the,  9,  10; 
early  interpolations  in,  9,  14-16; 
preservation  of  the  probable  arche- 
type, 9,  15;  inspirational  theory  of, 
10-12;  influence  upon  Greek 
thought,  II,  12,  17,  19,  26,  27; 
ethical  value  of,  11,  18,  19;  early 
criticism  of,  13-15,  20,  44;  allegori- 
cal and  rationalistic  explanation  of, 
20;  burlesques  of,  77;  editions  made 
by  Aristotle,  78,  79. 


484 


INDEX 


Homeric  Hymns,  13. 

Homonymy,  58. 

Horatius,  I.  Flaccus,  quoted,  ig;   as  a 

satirist,   149;    as  a  lyric  poet,   152; 

as  a  critic  of  literature,  181,  182. 
Humanism,  269-271;    contrasted  with 

Mediaevalism,  270-273  ;  in  Germany, 

388-394,  396-398;  the  New,  417. 
Humboldt,    of     Antiquity,     the,     see 

Herodotus. 
Hungary,  classical  studies  in,  399. 
Hurd,  Richard,  371. 
Hutten,  Ulrich  von,  395. 
Hylozoism,  21. 

Hymns,  Homeric,  13;   Latin,  218. 
Hypsicrates,    etymological    school    of, 

at  Rome,  157,  158. 


Iambic  Poetry,  a. 

lamblichus,  103. 

Iberians,  the,  6. 

Iliad,  the,  see  Homeric  Epic. 

Interpreters     of     foreign     languages, 

among  the  Greeks,  54. 
Invasions  of  Italy,  213,  214. 
Ionian  Greeks,  17,  18,  28;   educational 

influence  of,  17,  18. 
Ionian  School   of   Philosophy,    21,    22, 

24. 
Ireland,  Classical  Scholarship  in,  226; 

Mediaeval   Schools    in,   226  n. ;  La- 

tinity  in,  233. 
Irony,  69. 
Isidorus    of    Seville,     187,     188;     his 

Origincs,  igo;   his  De  Natura  Rerum, 

190;   on  the  mystic  number  Seven, 

248. 
Isocrates,  the  first  artistic  orator,  43 ; 

his  success  as  a  rhetorical  teacher,  43 ; 

obligations  of  Cicero  to,  44. 
Italian  Period  of  Scholarship,  284,  303, 

304- 
Itineraria,  175,  30"  n. 


Jager,  Johann,  395. 
Jahn,  Otto,  438,  439. 


Jebb,  R.  C,  447. 

Jerome,  148,  195. 

Jevons,  F.  B.,  quoted,  36. 

John  of  Salisbury,  231,  232. 

Jones,  Sir  William,  his  knowledge  of 
Oriental  languages,  382 ;  his  ap- 
pointment as  a  judge  in  Bengal,  383  ; 
his  translations  from  the  Sanskrit, 
383  ;  his  anticipation  of  Comparative 
Philology,  383,  384. 

Jowett,  Benjamin,  448. 

Juba  of  Mauretania,  194. 

Junggrammatiker,  393,  422. 

Junius,  Franciscus,  his  study  of  an- 
cient painting,  344. 

Justinianus,  252. 


Kaibel,  Georg,  collector  of  1200  epi- 
grams, 441—442. 

Kiepert,  Heinrich,  439  n. 

Kirchhoff,  A.,  441. 

Klassische  Altertliumsmssenschaft,  3. 

Klotz,  R.,  415. 

Kohler,  H.  E.,  401  n. 

Kriiger,  K.  W.,  412. 

Kiister,  Ludolf  (Neocorus),  his  devo- 
tion to  Greek,  351;  his  edition  of 
Aristophanes  with  the  scholia,  351. 


Laberius,  D.,  149. 

Lachmann,  Kari,  405-407  ;  his  Homer, 
405  ;  his  Lucretius,  406  ;  his  methods 
of  text  criticism  influenced  by  Bent- 
ley,  406 ;  by  Wolf,    406 ;    his    text 
criticism  of    the    New    Testament, 
407. 
Lambinus,  Dionysius,  306,  307,  407. 
Lane,  G.  M.,  452. 
Langen,  Rudolf  von,  391  n. 
Language,  study  of,  in  connection  with 
philosophy  and  psychology,  51,  52; 
theories  regarding  the  origin  of,  51- 
69,  see    Varro;    indifference    of   the 
Greeks  to  foreign  languages,  52-55; 
Eleatic  theory  of,  56-59 ;  HeracUtean 
theory  of,  56-60. 


INDi 


485 


Lasus  of  Hermione,  79. 

Latin  language,  its  characteristics,  131, 

136,  139-141,  217,  218;  as  modified 
by  Ennius,  141 ;  by  Plautus,  142- 
147;  by  Lucretius,  147-148;  by 
Cicero,  148 ;  by  ecclesiastical  writers, 
148;  the  sermo  urbanus,  156;  the 
sermo  cotidianus,  156;  the  sermo 
plebeius,  156,  217;  de  line  of,  193, 
194 ;  used  in  the  Mediaeval  Church, 
206-210;  used  as  a  diplomatic  lan- 
guage, 216;  used  as  a  liturgical  lan- 
guage, 217;  late  Latin,  217-223,  229, 
232;  semibarbarous  Latin,  218; 
scholastic  Latin  in  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 232  ;  use  of,  in  Hungary  and 
Poland,  399  n. 

Latin  literature,  native  period  of,  130- 
134  ;  early  Hellenic  influence  on,  134- 

137,  see  Ennius,  Plautus,  Pacuvius, 
Terentius,  Lucilius,  Lucretius;  the 
Golden  Age,  151-153,  see  Epic 
Poetry,  Lyric  Poetry,  Prose  Fiction, 
Criticism,  Varro;  Spanish  influence, 
176,  178,  186,  187,  190;  Roman 
oratory,  1 76-1 81 ;  the  Silver  Age, 
178-181,  see  Quintilianus,  Seneca, 
Tacitus,  Suetonius,  Plinius  Maior, 
Q.  Remmius  Palamon ;  the  African 
Period,  1S6-188,  see  Apuleius, 
Fronto,  Tertullianus,  Aulus  Gellius. 

Law,  Roman,  252—253. 

Lehrs,  Karl,  407,  411,  412. 

Leo,  F.,  419. 

Lessing,  Gotthold  Ephraim,  403. 

"Letter-play,"  69. 

Lexicography,  beginnings  of,  96,  97, 
126;  scientifically  undertaken  by 
Aristophanes  of  Byzantium,  108; 
developed  by  glossographers,  126; 
at  Rome,  165-167,  194;  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  244-247;  by  Suidas, 
254;  in  the  Byzantine  Empire,  254, 
255;  during  the  Renaissance,  281, 
304;  lexicon  of  Calepinus,  415;  un- 
rivalled Greek  lexicon  of  Stephanus 
(Robert  Etienne),  305  ;  in  Italy,  415, 
416;  in  Germany,  416,  417  ;  in  Eng- 
land and  in  the  United  States 
418  n. 


Liberal  Arts,  the  Seven,  237,  238. 

Libraries  :  the  libraries  at  Alexandria, 
92-94,  98,  102 ;  private  libraries  at 
Rome,  109,  116,  118;  at  Pergamum, 
118;  public  libraries  at  Rome,  161, 
198;  at  Constantinople,  198;  mon- 
astic libraries,  233-235;  Vatican, 
273;  St.  Mark's,  273;  Library  of 
Urbino,  273. 

Libyans,  the,  6. 

Licymnius,  his  classification  of  syno- 
nyms, 68. 

Ligurians,  the,  6. 

Linguistik,  3  n. 

Lipsius,  Justus,  317;  his  study  of 
Palaeography,  318;  his  reverence  for 
Tacitus,  319;    his  death,  327. 

Literary  Criticism,  20,  21;  by  Plato, 
19,  71,  72;  by  Aristotle,  73-75;  by 
the  Sophists,  76 ;  in  the  form  of  bur- 
lesque, 76-78 ;  by  the  Alexandrians, 
96-102;  by  Crates,  120;  at  Rome, 
180-183. 

Literary  Study  in  early  Greece,  18;  in 
the  Pra;- Alexandrian  Period,  71 ; 
by  the  Alexandrians,  96-98;  by 
Crates,  120,  157  n. ;  by  the  Romans, 
160-164,  166,  169 ;  by  the  Byzan- 
tines, 251,  254,  256,  257;  by  the 
Media;vals,  237,  238. 

Literary  Teaching,  beginnings  of,  18, 
19 ;  by  the  Sophists,  49,  50. 

Littre,  Emile,  426. 

Livius  Andronicus,  134,  137. 

Livius,    Titus,     153,    lost    books   of, 

277,   278.    _  y 

Lobeck,  Christian  August,  405,  411. 

Logic,  46-47 ;  in  relation  to  language, 
51-60. 

Logographi,  26. 

Louis  the  Pious,  385. 

Louvain,  "  the  Belgian  Athens, " 
431- 

Lucilius,  C,  149. 

Lucretius,  his  theory  of  the  origin  of 
language,  60;  his  philosophical  vo- 
cabulary, 147,  148;  as  a  poet  and 
philosopher,  151. 

Luder,  Peter,  390  n. 

Lullius,  Raimundus,  241,  242. 


486 


INDEX 


Luther,  Martin,   298,   302,    392,   395, 

397- 
Lycophron  of  Chalds,  99,  loi,  102,  255. 
Lycurgus  of  Athens,  his  recension  of  the 

tragic  poets,  78,  79. 
Lycurgus  of  Sparta,  17. 
Lyric  Poetry,  among  the  .f^oUans  and 

Dorians,  33  ;  at  Alexandria,  loi,  105  ; 

in  Latin  literature,    131,   134,    151, 

152. 
Lysias,  43. 


M 


Mabillon,  Jean,  314. 

Macedonian  ascendency  overGreece,84. 

Macrobius,  his  Saturnalia,  189. 

Madvig,  Johann  Nicolai,  423-425. 

Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  quoted,  19. 

Mai,  Cardinal,  166. 

Manuscripts,  collection  and  preserva- 
tion of,  204-206,  273-280;  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  233,  235  ;  list  of  the 
oldest  classical  manuscripts,  202,  234, 
23s;  at  Constantinople,  272  ;  prob- 
ability of  recovering  Mss.  now  lost, 
273  n. ;  recovery  of  lost  Mss.  in 
recent  times,  440,  441. 

Maps,  see  Geography. 

Maria  Theresa,  399,  403. 

Mariette,  P.  J.,  315- 

Martianus  Capella,  237,  238. 

MassiUa,  the  University  at,  125. 

Mathematics,  22,  103,  105. 

Matron  of  Pitana,  77. 

Matthaei,  C.  F.,  401  n. 

Maximus  Planudes,  256. 

Mayor,  J.  E.  B.,  448. 

Mediaevalism,  characterized,  242,  243, 
270;  contrasted  with  Humanism, 
270-273. 

Mediterranean  race,  the,  6. 

Meineke,  August,  407. 

Mela,  Pomponius,  176. 

Melanchthon    (Philipp    Schwarzerd), 

396,  397- 
Meleager,  256. 
MeHc  Poetry,  33. 
Menander,  86,  91,  234. 
Merriam,  A.  C,  453. 


Metaphor,  its  use  in  language,  68. 

Metres,  early  treatises  on,  76. 

Middle  Ages,  foreshadowed  in  the  sec- 
ond century  a.d.,  192 ;  decadence  of 
Classical  Latin,  193,  194,  214-220; 
influence  of  Christianity  on  class- 
ical learning,  195-200,  215-217;  sep)- 
aration  of  the  Eastern  from  the 
Western  Empire,  199;  Monachism, 
200-204;  invasion  of  the  Roman 
provinces,  213,  214;  end  of  Middle 
Ages,  214;  periods  of  mediaeval 
scholarship,  214;  popular  use  of 
Latin  after  the  fall  of  Rome,  214- 
223;  grammatical  theories  in,  236; 
art  in,  243  ;  philosophy  in,  244,  263 ; 
letters  and  learning  in,  244-247,  386. 

Missing  Analogy,  59. 

Mock-heroic,  77. 

Mommsen,  Theodor,  his  remarkable 
versatility,  443 ;  his  plan  for  the 
Latin  Corpus,  443 ;  his  history  of 
Rome,  444 ;  his  supplementary 
papers,  444. 

Monachism,  200-204. 

Monastic  Scholars,  222-225;  their 
books,  223  n. 

Monastic  Schools,  228-231. 

Montanus,  196. 

Monte  Cassino,  202. 

Montfaucon,     Bernard    de,  306,    313, 

314- 

Miiller,  Lucian,  402  n.,  407  n. 

Miiller,  Otfried,  quoted,  3  ;  his  mono- 
graph on  the  Etruscans,  437 ;  his 
history  of  Greek  hterature,  439. 

Munro,  H.  A.  J.,  quoted,  406 ;  his 
edition  of  Lucretius,  407,  448. 

Muratori,   L.  A.,  his   new   Thesaurus, 

442,  443- 

Muretus,  Marcus  Antonius,  306,  308, 
326. 

Museum,  the  Alexandrian,  92-95  ;  the 
Pergamene,  119;  the  Vatican,  428; 
Louvre,  427 ;  British,  381  n. ;  at 
Copenhagen,  433  ;  American. 

Music,  33;  early  Greek  treatises  on, 
79;  foundation  of  Classical  modes 
among  the  Greeks,  80,  81 ;  vocal, 
80,  81 ;  notation  of,  in  Greece,  81,  82 ; 


INDEX 


487 


Fleischer's  theory  of  Greek  modes, 
81,  82;  at  Rome,  82. 
Muth,     Conrad    (Mutianus    Rufus), 

395- 
Myron,  42. 
Mythic  Cycle,  12,  13. 
Mythology,  the  oldest  treatise  on,  13 ; 

a  great  anonymous  manual  of,  116. 


N 


Naevius,  G.  N.,  134 ;  his  Punka,  135, 

136. 
NasaHs  Sonans,  422,  423. 
Nauck,  August,  402  n.,  408. 
Neo-Platonism,  102,  103. 
Netherlands,    rise    of    scholarship   in, 

316,  317- 
Nettleship,  Henry,  447. 
New  Learning,  the,  284,  285. 
Nicholas  V.,  272. 

Niebuhr,  Barthold  G.,  37,  408—410. 
Nisard,  Desire  and  Charles,  426. 
Nitzsch,  K.  F.,  411. 
Nonius  Marcellus,  i8g. 
Numerals,  Arabic  (Hindu),  207. 
Nuremberg  Chronicle,  3go. 


Odoacer,  213. 

Odyssey,  the,  see  Homeric  Epic. 

Onomantia,  67. 

Onomatopoetic  theory  of  language, 
see  Herachtean  School. 

Oratorj',  in  the  Prae-Alexandrian  Period, 
39 ;  as  an  art,  39-47  ;  Asiatic  Style 
of,  42  ;  Attic  Style  of,  42 ;  its  relation 
to  Rhetoric,  43-48 ;  in  legal  pro- 
ceedings, 41,  43,  46;  taught  at 
Rhodes,  124  ;  at  Rome,  132 ;  orations 
written  for  friends,  159;  QuintiHan's 
teaching  of,  178,  179. 

Oriental  influence  on  Europe,  258. 

Oriental  languages:  Arabic  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  240;  Hebrew  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  240. 

Osborn  of  Gloucester,  247. 

Oudendorp,  Franz  van,  revives  Latin 
at  Leyden,  354. 


Painting  in  Early  Greece,  82,  83;  en- 
caustic painting,  83. 

Palaeography,  314. 

Pamphilius  on  Glosses,  194. 

Panorama,  247. 

Papias,  246. 

Paris,  Gaston,  quoted,  457,  458. 

Parmenides,  24. 

Parody,  77,  78,  see  Burlesque. 

Paronomasia,  in  Greek,  66,  67. 

Parrhasius,  83. 

Parr,  Samuel,  372,  373. 

Pater,  Walter,  quoted,  288. 

Paulsen,  Friedrich,  quoted,  388,  389. 

Paulus  Diaconus,  169. 

Pausanius,  176. 

Pausias,  83. 

Pelasgians,  the,  6. 

Peloponnesian  War,  35. 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  450. 

Pergamene  Library,  its  foundation, 
118;  catalogued  by  Callimachus, 
120. 

Pergamene  School,  118— 120;  con- 
trasted with  the  School  at  Alexan- 
dria, 117,  118;  how  founded,  118- 
120;  under  Crates  of  Mallos,  119- 
120. 

Pergamum,  description  of,  118,  119. 

Pericles,  the  .A.ge  of,  42,  43. 

Peripatetic  School  of  Philosophy,  122, 
128. 

Persian  Wars,  their  influence  on  Greek 
civilization,  29-32. 

Persius  Flaccus,  149,  183. 

Petrarca,  Francesco,  his  studies,  264; 
his  Latin  epic,  264,  265 ;  his  recov- 
ery of  classic  authors,  265,  266 ;  his 
relations  with  the  German  Emperor, 
386,  387- 

Petronius,  C,  154,  iS7.  161 ;  quoted, 
177  n. ;  read  in  schools,  246;  dis- 
covery of  Cena  Trimalchionis  in 
1663,  314. 

Phidias,  42. 

Philetas  of  Cos,  first  attempt  at  an 
Homeric  lexicon,  96,  127. 

Piiilologist,  various  meanings  of,   1-3. 


488 


INDEX 


Philology,  various  meanings  of,  1-3. 

Philosophy,  origin  of,  in  Greece,  21; 
the  Ionian  School,  21;  Heraclitus, 
21;  Pythagoras,  22-24;  the  Eleatic 
School,  24;  Aristotle,  48,  122;  Soc- 
rates and  the  Sophists,  50,  51 ;  the 
Sceptics,  50;  the  Stoics,  51,  122; 
the  Epicureans,  51,  122;  the 
Cynics,  51;  the  Eclectics,  51,  97; 
Plato,  63-65,  122;  Alexandrian 
philosophy,  102,  103 ;  philosophical 
studies  at  Rome,  147,  150,  151; 
Mediaeval,  243,  244,  263 ;  in  the 
Renaissance,  263. 

Photius,  254. 

Phrynicus,  411. 

Pindar,  32-34. 

Pisistratus,  alleged  recension  of  Ho- 
meric poems  by,  14-16. 

Plato,  first  uses  terms  (^4X6X070?, 
<pi\o\oyla,  I ;  his  opinion  of  writing, 
19;  his  linguistic  theories,  61-67; 
his  physiology  of  language,  63-65 ; 
his  ridicule  of  popular  etymologies, 
65,  66;  classifies  letters  of  the  al- 
phabet, 65 ;  his  grammatical  dis- 
tinctions, 70. 

Plautus,  T.  Maccius,  his  place  in  Ro- 
man Hterature,  138;  his  enrichment 
of  the  Latin  vocabulary,  142-148; 
comparison  with  Shakespeare,  143, 
144;  text  criticism  of,  160;  Varro's 
Plautine  Canon,  165. 

Plebeian  Latin,  see  Sermo  Plebeius. 

Plinius  Maior,  188. 

"  Poetic  Prose,"  284. 

Poetics  of  Aristotle,  73-76. 

Poetry,  inspirational  theory  of,  10- 
12. 

Poggio  Bracciolini,  Francesco,  276- 
279- 

Pohtianus,  Angelo  de,  282,  283. 

PoUtical  Science,  38. 

Pollux,  Julius,  his  dictionary,  194. 

Polus,  68  n. 

Polyclitus,  his  "Canon,"  128  n. 

Polygnotus  of  Thasos,  82. 

Polyonomy,  58. 

Pompeius  Festus,  i6g. 

Porson,  Richard,  characteristics  of,  374, 


375 ;  his  work  and  reading,  375-377 ; 
restores  the  Rosetta  Stone,  376 ;  his 
letters  to  Travis,  376;  the  Three 
Heavenly  Witnesses,  376;  Porsonian 
type,  377- 

Post-Renaissance  Period,  289. 

Prae-Alexandrian  Period,  characteriza- 
tion of,  84-86;   its  end,  87. 

Princeton  University  (College  of  New 
Jersey),  450. 

Printing,  introduction  of,  285;  devel- 
opment of,  28s,  286 ;  centres  of  early 
book  production,  286;  effect  upon 
Classical  scholarship,  286,  395. 

Priscianus  Scianus  of  Constantinople, 
185,  186;  his  grammar  abridged, 
239  ;  introduced  into  Germany,  386. 

Private  editions,  in. 

Probus  Berytius,  M.  Valerius,  186. 

Procopius,  252. 

Prodicus  of  Ceos,  as  a  lecturer  on  style, 
49-50 ;  his  treatise  on  synonyms,  50, 
70. 

Pronunciation,  of  Greek,  241  n.,  290; 
of  Latin,  434. 

Prose,  beginnings  of  Greek,  26 ;  devel- 
opment of,  34,  35;  Latin,  153,  154; 
methods  of  studying,  177,  178. 

Prose  fiction  (Greek  and  Latin),  154, 
155  ;   at  Byzantium,  253. 

Protagoras  of  Abdera,  as  a  teacher  of 
rhetoric,  49,  51;  first  distinguishes 
grammatical  moods  and  genders,  70, 
70  n. 

Protestant  Reformation,  effects  of, 
301-303. 

Ptolemius,  Claudius,  176. 

Ptolemy  Soter,  go. 

Publilius  Syrus,  149. 

Punctuation,  in  Greek,  98,  108. 

Punic  Wars,  31,  153,  154. 

Pyrgoteles,  84. 

Pythagoras,  21-24;  Golden  verses  of, 
24. 


Quadrivium,  238. 

Quintilianus,  M.  Fabius,    his    treatise 
on  education,  178-181. 


INDEX 


489 


Rabanus  (Hrabanus)  Maurus,  185,  238, 
239,  27s,  385-386. 

Rask,  R.  K.,  his  study  of  Old  Per- 
sian, 420,  421. 

Regiomontanus  (Johann  MUUer),  387. 

Reiske,  Johann  Jacob,  401. 

Reitz,  J.  F.,  353. 

Religion,  11,  13;  taught  by  Pythago- 
ras, 23,  24 ;  philosophical  religion  at 
Alexandria,  102,  103. 

Remmius  Palaemon,  Q.,  183. 

Renaissance,  the,  characteristics  of, 
260-264;  causes  of  the,  262,  270- 
274 ;  philosophy  in,  263 ;  early 
scholars  of,  281 ;  Italian  Period,  284, 
28s;  results  of  the,  285,  287,  288; 
Ciceronianism  in,  302,  303. 

Reuchlin,  Johann,  393,  394. 

Rhetoric,  40-51 ;  first  treatise  on,  41 ; 
taught  in  Athens  by  Gorgias,  43 ; 
critically  expounded  by  Aristotle,  45, 
48 ;  popularized  by  the  Sophists,  49- 
51;  the  Alexandrian  rhetoric,  98, 
loi ;    exhibition  of,  by  Carneades, 

150. 

Rhinthon  of  Tarentum,  78. 

Rhodomann,  Lorenz,  399. 

Ribbeck,  Otto,  professor  in  five  uni- 
versities, 440. 

Richardson,  J.  F.,  436. 

Rienzi,  Cola  di,  442. 

Ritschl,  Friedrich,  407,  434,  439;  his 
edition  of  Plautus,  439,  440. 

Romance  Languages,  219;  study  of, 
by  Germans,  426. 

Romans,  early  history  of,  130-134; 
early  literature  of ,  131-136,  138,  142- 
144,  148,  149;  their  first  relations 
with  Greece,  132-134;  Hellenic  in- 
fluence on,  134;  national  charac- 
teristics of,  136-138. 

Roman  use  of  philologus,  philologia, 
2. 

Rome,  in  the  first  century  a.d.,  170, 
171;  schools  at,  172-181;  the  city  in 
the  fourth  century  A.D. ,  211,  2r2. 

Ruhnken,  David,  354,  358. 

Russia,  development  of  classical  stud- 


ies in,  400  n. ;  universities  in,  400  n. ; 
German  influence  in,  400  n. 


Saintsbury,  George,  quoted,  20. 

Salmasius  (Claude  de  Saumise),  dis- 
covered the  Palatine  Anthology,  344 ; 
edited  Florus  in  ten  days,  345 ; 
edited  the  Historia  Augusta,  345 ; 
his  commentary  on  Solinus,  345 ; 
his  calls  from  Oxford,  Padua,  and 
Bologna,  345  ;  receives  research  pro- 
fessorship in  Leyden,  345 ;  his  con- 
troversy with  Milton,  346 ;  personal 
characteristics,  347. 

Salutati,  Colutius,  first  Ciceronian,  268. 

Sanskrit,  first  grammar  of,  384. 

Sappho,  33. 

Satire,  a  Roman  form  of  literature,  135, 
149,  150,  162. 

Savile,  Sir  Henry,  tutor  in  Greek  to 
Queen  Elizabeth,  355 ;  his  transla- 
tions from  Tacitus,  355 ;  becomes 
Provost  at  Eton,  356 ;  helps  prepare 
the  authorized  version  of  the  Bible, 
356;  produces  a  great  edition  of  St. 
Chrysostom,  356;  a  founder  of  the 
Bodleian  Library,  356. 

Scaliger,  Joseph  Justus,  323-341 ;  his 
early  teaching,  323;  his  knowledge 
of  Greek  and  Arabic,  324;  his  travels 
in  England  and  Scotland,  326;  his 
stay  with  Cujacius,  326,  327;  his 
call  to  Leyden,  328;  his  feud  with 
Caspar  Scioppius,  329;  his  Epistula 
de  Gcnte  Scaligera,  330,  331 ;  his 
Confutatio  Burdonum,  332  ;  his  learn- 
ing as  a  chronicler,  53i5-2,3(> ;  his 
Manilius,  337,  338;  his  Eusebian 
Chronicle,  339,  340;  his  personal 
characteristics,  341 ;  temporary  de- 
cline of  his  reputation,  34r. 

Scaliger,  Julius  Cassar,  320,  321 ;  his 
Latin  Grammar,  322;  his  physical 
theory',  322. 

Sceptics,  the,  50. 

Schliemann,  H.,  his  remarkable  exca- 
vations, 445. 

Schola  Palatina  of  Charlemagne,  220. 


49° 


INDEX 


Scholasticism,  period  of,  214 ;  its  prin- 
cipal features,  227,  228. 
Scholia,  origin  of,  125. 
Schools,  see  Education. 
Scioppius,    Caspar    (Caspar   Scioppe), 

329-331. 
Sears,  L.,  quoted,  39,  40. 
Seneca,  quoted,  3. 
Sermo  Cotidianus,  156. 
Sermo  Plebeius,  156. 
Sermo  Rusticus,  215. 
Sermo  Urbanus,  156. 
Servius,  184. 

Seven,  as  a  mystic  number,  248. 
Seymour,  T.  D.,  455. 
Short,  C.  L.,  454. 

Sicily,  first  rhetorical  teaching  in,  41. 
Silli,  78. 

Simonides,  72,  73. 

Socrates,  essentially  a  Sophist,  50 ;  in- 
fluence of  his  teachings,  50.  Si;    as 
a  critic  of  poetry,  72,  73;  burlesques 
the  Sophists,  65,  66. 
Solon,  16,  28. 

Sophists,  the,  49;    character  of  their 
teaching,  49-50;    their  influence  on 
Greek     philosophy,     50-51;      bur- 
lesqued by  Socrates,  65,  66 ;  literary 
criticism  by,  76. 
Sophocles,  42. 
Sophocles,  E.  A.,  452. 
Spalding,  Georg,  410  n. 
Spanheim,  Ezechiel,  as  a  numismatist, 

3SO. 
Spanish  Latinity,  Period  of,  178,  183. 
Spengel,  L.,  412. 
Stephani,  L.,  401  n. 
Stephanus,  Henricus,  305. 
Stephanas  of  Byzantium,    176. 
Stephanus,  Robertus,  305. 
Stoics,    51 ;    their  language   teaching, 

119,  120. 
Strabo  of  Amasia,  174,  175. 
Studium  Generate,  231. 
Sturm,  Johann,  397,  398. 
Style,   40,  47,  49 ;    Asiatic,  42 ;    .^ttic, 
42  ;  Alexandrian  Stylists,  98 ;  Latin, 
in  antiquity,  135,  138. 
Suetonius  Tranquillus,  Gaius,  171. 
Suidas,  his  lexicon  and  its  sources,  254. 


Symonds,  J.  A.,  quoted,  209. 
Synchronistic    Method    in     Classical 
Philology,  3. 


Tabula  Peutingeriana,  175,  392  n. 

Tarsus,  the  university  at,  124. 

Teachers,  in  the  Graeco-Roman  Period, 
172-173- 

Tegn6r,  Esaias,  433. 

Terentius,  P.,  149. 

Terpander  of  Lesbos,  z^,  80. 

Tertullianus,  M.  Aureus,  186,  196, 
197. 

Text  Criticism,  beginnings  of,  13-16; 
undertaken  by  Aristotle,  78;  by 
Lycurgus  of  Athens,  78 ;  at  Alexan- 
dria, 98,  104-116;  at  Pergamum, 
119,  120;  ^lius  Stilo,  160;  by 
Varro,  165 ;  by  other  Romans,  166, 
167 ;  see  Criticism. 

Thales,  21. 

Theocritus,  loi. 

Theon,  116. 

Theophrastus  of  Lesbos,  his  treatises 
on  comedy,  on  style,  and  on  metres, 
76;  succeeds  Aristotle  and  endows 
Peripatetic  School,  122. 

Thiersch,  F.  W.,  412. 

Thrace,  mythical  poets  of,  10. 

Thucydides,  35-37. 

Ticknor,  George,  451. 

Timon  of  PhHus,  77,  78. 

Tisias,  41. 

Topography,  175,  176. 

Tournier,  Edouard,  426. 

Tragedy,  72 ;  discussed  by  Aristotle, 
73-75  ;  among  the  Romans,  148,  149. 

Trebonianus,  252. 

Tribal  Age  in  Greece,  7. 

Trigonometry,  104. 

Trithemius,  Johannes,  239,  391  n. 

Triumvirate,  the,  317. 

Trivium,  238. 

Trojan  Cycle,  12. 

Tryphon,  116. 

Turnebus,  Hadrianus,  306,  307. 

Tyrwhitt,  Thomas,  372. 

Tzetzes,  loannes,  255. 


INDEX 


491 


United  States,  universities  in,  449- 
451 ;  classical  scholarship  in,  452- 
455  ;  German  influence  in,  452-455. 

Unities,  the  dramatic,  75. 

Universities,  at  Alexandria,  92-97 ; 
Pergamum,  11 7-1 20;  at  Athens, 
1 21-124;  at  Rhodes,  124;  at  Lesbos, 
124;  at  Tarsus,  124;  at  Paris,  226, 
426-428;  at  Bologna,  231;  in  Eng- 
land, see  English  Universities ;  in 
Germany,  232,  388-393 ;  in  Hun- 
gary, 399  ;  in  Poland,  399  n.,  400  n. ; 
in  Russia,  400  n. ;  in  Holland,  430 ; 
in  Belgium,  431  ;  in  Scandinavia, 
432-434 ;     in    the    United    States, 

449-451- 
Ussing,  Johan  Louis,  432,  433. 


V 


Valckenaer,  Ludwig  Caspar,  358. 

Valla,  Lorenzo  della,  281 ;  his  treatise 
on  style,  281,  282;  his  contempora- 
ries, 281;  his  Ciceronianism,  281, 
282 ;  his  first  suggestion  of  Biblical 
criticism,  294. 

Varro,  M.  Terentius,  160;  as  an  en- 
cyclopaedist, 160-161 ;  as  a  man  of 
affairs,  160,  161 ;  his  treatise  De 
Lingua  Lalina,  162-164;  his  An- 
tiquitatum  Libri,  162;  his  other  works 
162;  his  Plautine  Canon,  165. 

Vatican  Library,  the  founding  of,  273. 

Verner's  Law,  421. 

Verrius  Flaccus,  M.,  168-170. 

Victorius  Petrus,  283,  284. 

Viermenner  Scholien,  114,  115. 

Vipsanius  Agrippa,  M.,  175. 

Vocabulary,  Latin,  141 ;  enrichment  of, 
by  Plautus,  145-147 ;  by  Ennius, 
141 ;  by  Lucretius,  147  ;  by  Cicero, 
148 ;  by  Tertullian,  148 ;  by  .\puleius, 
145,  146,  148;    Plebeian  Latin,  156. 

Voevodski,  L.  F.,  401  n. 


Vossius,  Gerhard  Johannes,  343,  344; 
his  Ars  Poetica,  343;  his  two  great 
historical  treatises,  343 ;  his  mono- 
graphs on  Art  and  Mythology,  344. 

Vulgate,  the,  criticised  by  Roger  Bacon, 
241 ;  edited  at  Oxford,  241. 

W 

Walafrid  Strabo,  385. 

Warfare,  as  a  stimulus  to  intellectual 

productiveness,  31,  32. 
Watts,  2. 

Welcker's  Cyclus,  438. 
Whitney,  W.  D.,  454,  455. 
Willems,  Pierre,  432  n. 
William  and  Mary,  College  of,  449. 
Wimpheling,  Jacob,  391  n. 
Winckelmann,  Johann  Joachim,  402, 

403,  417- 
Wolf,  F.  A.,  matriculation  at  Gottin- 

gen  of,  2  ;  403,  404. 
Wolfliin,  Eduard,  416,  417. 
Woolsey,  T.  D.,  451. 
Writing,  Plato's  opinion  of,  19. 
Wyttenbach,  Daniel,  358,  359. 


Xenophanes,  rejects  Homeric  theology, 

24. 
Xenophon,  the  historian,  37,  38. 


Yale,  Elihu,  founder  of  Yale  College, 

449. 

Z 

Zeno,  24. 

Zenodotus  of  Ephesus,  98;  his  criti- 
cism of  texts,  105,  106;  as  a  lexi- 
cographer,   106;    called   Ai.opd(i)TT]s, 

105- 
Zeuxis,  83. 
Zumpt,  K.  G.,  415. 


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